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AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



OF THE 



REV. DAVID POWELL, 

A MINISTER OF THE NEW CHURCH SIGNIFIED BY THE 
NEW JERUSALEM IN THE APOCALYPSE: 



TOGETHER WITH 



EIGHT OF HIS SERMONS. 



EDITED BY THE REV. WM. H. BENADE. 




*f* 



PHILADELPHIA. /« 
PUBLISHED BY A COMMITTEE OE THE DARBY SOCIETY OF THE NEW CHURCH. 

1856. 



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PREFACE, 



The first portion of this work was written, by our friend and 
brother, for publication in The Newchurchman, a periodical 
edited by the Rev. R. De Charms, at the solicitation of its edi- 
tor. Circumstances having arisen to cause a change of this ar- 
rangement, it was concluded to publish it in a separate book 
form ; and, as our esteemed brother was prevented, by the seve- 
rity of his illness, from giving his personal attention to the mat- 
ter, he placed the manuscript in our hands, with the request to 
prepare and complete it for publication. 

The few alterations which we have felt authorized to make in 
the Autobiography and Sermons, affect only the style, and not 
the sense of what he has written. Our short additional record 
of the last years of our friend's life, was prepared from very 
meagre data, and is, therefore, necessarily very imperfect — es- 
pecially as it was out of our power to supply a more particular 
notice of Mr. Powell's official career, which, as we verily believe, 
the church, in a future day of its existence, will acknowledge to 
have had an important bearing upon its highest interest-. 

In regard to the execution of the work, we cannot <l<> better 
than to add the words of another, who lias known Mr. Powell 



PREFACE. 4 

long and intimately. He says : " It is a matter of much regret, 
that he put off so long, the writing of his own biography; be- 
cause that which he has left us affords far too much evidence of 
the debility which his fell disease had produced in both his phy- 
sical and mental framework, and gives a very poor idea indeed 
of the vigor of both his mind and his pen in his brighter and 
better days." 

However, as the record of the life of a good man and true, — 
imperfect as it is, — we are well assured that this work will per- 
form a great use. It ought to, and will, be read, pondered, and 
valued, even as that life itself ought to have been, and was, 
marked, acknowledged, and esteemed for its private excellence, 
and for its conspicuous manifestation of a heavenly official fervor, 
from the Lord, in its very useful labors co-operative in the Mas- 
ter's work of saving souls. 

W. H. B. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



OP 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 



First General Division of my Life, from Birth to the 
Fifth Year of my Age. 

Of this division of my life, but little can be said ; notwith- 
standing I regard this period of man's existence of vast impor- 
tance to him. For it is a formative state ; and one preparatory 
to the second division, which is properly that of instruction, and 
a plane upon which it rests. 

But I know of no record having been made of what occurred 
during this period of my life ; and my own memory is not suffi- 
cient to give its history now. Hence, as I have stated, but little 
can now be said about it. I simply remember of having heard 
my parents say, that I was not a very healthy infant ; for, when 
quite young, I had seven large boils on my head at the same 
time, and that all were lanced by the physician at one visit. 
This was surely sufficient to carry off corruption enough to make 
me a healthier child, if not a better boy. 

By reference to the record of births in my father's Family 
Bible, it may be seen that I was born on the ninth day of Janu- 
ary, A. D. 1805. The place of my nativity was in the county 
of Jefferson, in the state of Ohio, about two miles west of the 

1 






6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

present city of Steubenville. This place was my constant home, 
until I entered upon the nineteenth year of my age. 

Infancy and childhood are so helpless, that they are wholly 
dependant upon others. And the influence which those who 
have the care of infants and children, have over them, is very 
great. The impressions then made have much to do in forming 
their character in after life. When the new church comes for- 
ward in her true light, so that the importance of the good of re- 
mains is clearly seen, then will parents feel the greatest interest 
in this age. Then will they guard the young immortals with 
watchful care, that nothing but kind, gentle, tender and loving 
impressions be made on the forming mind. 

On account of the dependence of this age upon others, espe- 
cially upon parents, I will here refer briefly to my father and 
mother. To speak in general terms, few persons have been 
blessed with kinder and better parents than I have been. They 
became receivers of the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusa- 
lem quite early in life, and remained devotedly attached to them 
as long as they lived on earth. I doubt not but that their early 
connection with the new church was beneficial to me in this first 
division of my life. Good impressions were then made, which 
the Lord preserved for my future use. 

But to speak of my parents more particularly — which I do in 
consequence of some things which are to follow — my father and 
mother were very different in disposition. My father was even 
in temper, but my mother was quick and passionate. My father 
was content with his worldly circumstances and had but little 
ambition to accumulate more, while my mother was more restless 
and anxious to make money. She did not seem to have a pas- 
sion for hoarding it up ; but simply to have the gratification of 
having it pass through her hands to her family and others. Nei- 
ther of my parents could endure the idea of being in debt : so 
they generally adopted the rule, " Pay as you go." 

Few men in the community were more respected than my 
father, and often was he called upon to fill various offices in the 
town in which he lived. Many times would his excellence as a 
worthy citizen be spoken about, at the same time with much re- 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 7 

gret that he held such abominahle doctrines as Swedenborgian- 
ism, as they called it. These objectionable references to his re- 
ligion would only draw from him a gentle smile. This decision 
of character was useful to me. 

My mother, in some respects, moved in another sphere. She, 
in her great attention to worldly matters, furnished employment 
and means of support to many of the poorer class in the neigh- 
borhood, and was certainly kind and liberal to them. She was 
highly esteemed by all, and persons with whom she dealt had 
entire confidence in her integrity. In the midst of all these 
worldly attentions, she was firmly attached to the new church. 
And, what is worthy of remark, my father's house was the gene- 
ral resort for all receivers of the new-church doctrines in the 
community and also from a distance. This caused a constant 
drain of the supplies for the table ; and as my mother had to 
oversee this portion of the household, it gave her much to do, in 
this way, for the church. 

In a word, the devotion of both my parents to the doctrines 
of the church, had a good influence over me, to strengthen me 
in the hour of trial. But, as it is not a biography of my father 
and mother I am writing, I need say no more about them here. 

Although this first division of human life is, as before re- 
marked, of undoubted importance, I am unable to say more 
about it in my case, as I have not the information to do so accu- 
rately. But all readers who will render themselves familiar with 
the writings of Swedenborg, and other writings of the new church, 
will clearly understand how much depends on proper attention 
being given to the state of infancy and childhood: and to these 
writings I refer my readers for that valuable information. 

So here I close remarking on this first division of my life. 



The Second General Division of my Life, from the 
Age of Five to Twenty. 

What is here given concerning this period of my life, is given 
from my own distinct recollection. Only a few of the most pro- 
minent events will be noticed. 



8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

The appropriate uses and duties of this age, in a true and or- 
derly state of the church, will be the formation, developement, 
and infilling the mind by education and instruction, as a prepa- 
ration for the responsible duties of the next general division of 
man's age. Hence I will speak first, briefly, of my opportuni- 
ties in these respects. 

As to the advantages of acquiring knowledges in school, they 
were quite limited. Schools were not plenty, and could with 
difficulty be sustained. After I was six or seven years old, I 
believe I never went to school in the summer season, with the 
exception of a part of one summer. Some weeks in the winter 
made up the amount of my school opportunities. A strange 
fact, which, for a time, seemed to operate against us, I will here 
relate. In one of the neighborhoods in which a school was ge- 
nerally kept, the leading supporters were Presbyterians and Se- 
ceders. Some of the most bigoted and influential said, that, if 
the Swedenborg children, as we were often called, were permitted 
to attend the school, they would not send their children. The 
result was, that we remained at home. This circumstance, with 
other considerations, induced my father to build a small school- 
house in one corner of his door-yard. 

In this small house, my father taught his children, during the 
winter season, with the children of such of the neighbors as were 
not prevented by too strong -prejudices from sending them. My 
father was a very competent teacher. Hence the superior cha- 
racter of this little school, with other good influences which my 
parents exerted, caused bigotry to give way, so that, in a short 
time, all in the neighborhood sought the privilege of sending to 
this school — even those who had previously objected to the at- 
tendance of Swedenborg children, as we were generally called. 

The time spent in school in the winter was generally eight to 
ten weeks. The winter I entered on my seventeenth year of 
age, I went to school one full quarter. This was the last oppor- 
tunity I had of going to school. Limited as my privileges were 
in this respect, they were so well improved, that I was looked 
upon as among the best scholars in the neighborhood, that is, in 
the branches then commonly taught in school. But this did not 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 9 

satisfy me. I soon applied myself to other branches of an Eng- 
lish education, in which it was believed I acquitted myself with 
credit. But, after all, my scholastic education was limited. 

During this period of my life, my religious education was not 
neglected. At least, it received as much attention as was com- 
mon in those days. I was taught a new-church catechism, in- 
cluding the Lord's prayer and ten commandments. And often 
on sabbath evenings were all the children of the family examined 
in it, in connection with family worship. 

In the summer of 1817, in the twelfth year of my age, I re- 
ceived the rite of baptism into the new church, administered by 
the Rev. M. M. Carll. About this time, the impression became 
strong upon my mind, that it would be my duty to enter the mi- 
nistry of the new church and zealously preach her doctrines. 
This impression became so strong, that, at length, I felt it as 
imperative, and to resist it seemed like refusing obedience to my 
Divine Master. This impression I did not communicate to any 
one. But, from the interest I so early manifested in new-church 
matters, I have thought my father felt a hope, at least, that I 
would some day follow in his footsteps, at least so far as to be- 
come a preacher of the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem. 
The idea of preaching these doctrines stimulated the desire of 
understanding them. So, young as I was, I read carefully and 
studied the Universal Theology of the New Church, with other 
of Swedenborg's works. 

So far as my education and study went, this division of my 
life was passed in general as has been related. But, before I 
dismiss it, I will relate two or three other particulars. 

It was said of me, by some of the family, that I was quick 
tempered, fiery, and rather ill-natured. I confess I could not 
fully see myself in such a light. Still I could see that I was 
quite easily irritated. Suffice to say, I regarded it as wrong. 
Hence I religiously and conscientiously resisted it, until I ac- 
quired the reputation of being uncommonly good natured and 
even in temper. But I can assure the reader that it caused me 
a long and painful internal struggle, to gain the victory. 

Another particular I may relate, of my early trials. For a 



10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

boy, I suppose no one ever had a stronger propensity to use pro- 
fane language than I had. To prevent the words coming forth, 
I have, I presume hundreds of times, closed my teeth together 
with my utmost strength. I did so because I thought it would 
be very wicked to break the commandment which forbids taking 
the name of the Lord in vain. It often seemed to me that the 
evil spirits would overpower me, and compel me to use some form 
of a profane oath, to prevent which I thought of the Lord and 
closed my teeth, as stated. I believe I never, with one excep- 
tion, at least audibly, used what I regarded as improper language, 
that is, a profane oath. That exception was at a time when I 
felt that my brother had very greatly and quite unnecessarily 
outraged my feelings ; and, in my haste, I called out, " curse 
you!" But, when I cooled and reflected, bitterly did I regret 
that I had said so. But, if ever a person had a hard and pain- 
ful struggle to endure to overcome any inclination, I am that 
person in the particular here related. 

I would not have the reader suppose these were the only forms 
of evil I had to contend with, even in boyhood. There were 
others ; but I only give these as mere illustrations. 

Early in the spring that I entered upon the eighteenth year 
of my age, I went to learn the trade of tanning. My reasons 
for so doing, when I felt so strongly that it was my duty to 
preach, I will state more fully in another place. Here I will 
only say, that I thought tanning was a money-making business, 
and that, if I preached, it would be necessary that I should sus- 
tain myself and live respectably in society. 

One event, connected with my leaving home to learn a trade, 
was so useful to me through life, that I will here relate it. When 
I started from home, my father accompanied me a short distance, 
to impart to his son some most wholesome advice. He warned 
me of the dangers to which I would be exposed, as a youth going 
into a town to live. The place was Wheeling, in the state of 
Virginia. One particular request, among others, was, that I 
should never close my eyes to sleep for the night without de- 
voutly repeating the Lord's prayer. This instruction from my 
father, during a short walk, made a deep impression on my mind. 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. H 

Perhaps it became more permanent, as it was the last privilege 
of the kind I ever enjoyed ; for, the next time I saw him, he was 
prostrate upon a bed of sickness, from which he never recovered. 
I loved my father devotedly : hence every word of instruction 
from him, at the time of which I am speaking, was as precious 
as an apple of gold. After nearly half a mile's walk, we parted ; 
and, when he turned his back, tears streamed from my eyes. My 
feelings I cannot describe. I lifted up my youthful soul in prayer 
to the Lord Jesus Christ, as best I could, to guide and sustain 
me. I endeavored to obey my father and follow his instruction. 
I made it my settled practice before going to sleep. We had to 
work extremely hard. If, through great fatigue, I fell asleep 
without praying the Lord's prayer, my sleep was apt to be dis- 
turbed with unpleasant dreams. As soon as I would wake, the 
cause would rush into my mind, and as quickly would I lift up 
my soul to the Lord Jesus Christ in that divine prayer, and 
would generally find relief. The devout use of that prayer daily, 
I believe, was of the utmost spiritual importance to me. 

I had worked but a few months at my trade when my father 
was taken into the spiritual world. It was determined, shortly 
afterwards, that I should return to Steubenville and work at my 
trade there. This I did the ensuing winter. Soon after my 
return, I was appointed lay-reader to the little society that met 
for worship, once in two weeks, in the small school-house, built 
by my father partly for that purpose. This office I held as long 
as I remained in the bounds of the society, and endeavored faith- 
fully to discharge its duties, in taking the lead in the worship 
and reading the sermons. 

Thus was this second division of my life passed. 



Third General Division of Man's Life, from the Twen- 
tieth to the Sixtieth Year. 

This general division of my life was entered with much anx- 
iety of feeling. Several considerations combined to cause this. 
I was still most firmly impressed that it was my duty to preach. 



12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

And, as my father before me had filled the ministerial office 
without receiving any pecuniary support, I felt that it would be 
my duty to do the same. In fact, I had some how imbibed the 
idea that it was wrong for a minister to receive any thing to sus- 
tain him while preaching. Hence my first object was to accu- 
mulate property, so that I might have means to support myself. 
For this purpose I had learned the tanning business. 

But two great drawbacks stood in the way of my pursuing the 
business at which I had worked. One was a tetterous affection 
on my hands ; another a want of means to start in business ; for 
I had little or no means with which to commence. These con- 
ditions pressed heavily on my mind. My father left a large and 
excellent farm in a good state of cultivation, with plenty on it, 
and unencumbered by debt, when he died. But, by common 
consent, it was left in the management of my mother, to support 
and enable her to bring up my younger brothers and sisters. 
In fact, the family was large, and what property my father left 
was needed for their support. Hence I had very little to ex- 
pect from that quarter. In time, however, I received my share 
of the estate ; but the amount was small, when divided among so 
many. 

I made my home at my mother's for a time after I was twenty 
years of age ; but, on some accounts, it was not very pleasant. 
This fact, with some other considerations, not particularly ne- 
cessary to mention, inclined me to seek another home. At the 
same time, the impression was quite firmly made on my mind, 
that the married life, where the marriage is judiciously made, 
was more favorable for accumulating money than the single life. 
And to make money honestly, that I might preach, seemed to be 
uppermost in my mind. Hence, as I desired a change in my 
situation, I began seriously to think of marriage, young as I 
was. My twenty-first year I spent teaching school, as the best 
I could do to improve myself and to increase my limited means. 
At the close of this year, I was married to a young lady, a 
daughter of one of the most respectable farmers of the county. 
But, like myself, though her father was in easy circumstances 
for the country, and for people then living in that part of the 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. J 3 

West, she was blessed with a goodly number of brothers and 
sisters. She was one, and the second in age, of ten children, 
all then living ; and I one, and fifth in age, of twelve children. 
So,' at the time of our marriage, she received but little worldly 
goods, and never much. It might be said, in truth, that, by our 
marriage, we increased each other greatly in our stock of rela- 
tives, if we did not much increase our stock in trade, as the means 
of temporal living. One thing is quite certain, and that is, 
that we did not take each other for the amount of money 
either had ; for, if we had done so, we would have met the fate 
that all who marry (or rather come together) for money, ought 
always to meet, disappointment. So the truth on this point 
speaks right out and tells the reader that we commenced our 
married life with but little worldly means ; and, if we never had 
much, we have the consoling reflection, that we did not uselessly 
squander an earthly fortune left us by others. Still we always 
had the necessaries, and, perhaps I might add, the comforts of 
life. And, in this early life of limited means, I was taught a 
lesson of new-church truth, that perhaps no other condition would 
have taught me. That truth will be pointed out in another place. 
Here I will only say, it pressed home to me the conviction, that 
" Dominus providebit." 

I always abhorred the principle and the practice of contract- 
ing marriage for money ; and when I have heard persons, as is 
often done, alluding to "dimes" as a consideration in such mat- 
ters, it has only aroused a feeling of disgust. In this particular, 
I acted according to my professed conviction of right, however 
much I may have erred in other matters of equal importance. 
I now allude to the fact, that the young lady, now my wife, was 
brought up, in the strictest sect of Calvinism, a Seceder. She, 
however, was not a member, and, at the time of our marriage, 
was quite skeptical as to the truth of her parents' religion, or 
the church of her birth. 

But the new-church doctrine of marriage of persons of different 
religions, is so. important, that I feel constrained to introduce an 
extract here from the Arcana Ccelestia. "The case herein is 

2 



14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

this : they who are born within the church, and from infancy 
have been imbued with the principles of the truth of the church, 
ought not to enter into marriages with those who are out of the 
church, and in consequence have been imbued with such things 
as are not of the church : the reason is, because there is no con- 
junction between them in the spiritual world; for every one in 
that world, is consociated according to good and the truth thence 
derived : and, since there is no conjunction between such in the 
spiritual world, neither ought there to be any conjunction in the 
earth ; for marriages, regarded in themselves, are conjunctions of 
minds {animi) and of minds (mentes), the spiritual life of which 
(minds) is derived from the truths and goods of faith and cha- 
rity. On this account, marriages on earth between those who 
are of a different religion, are also accounted in heaven as hei- 
nous ; and especially between those who are of the church with 
those who are out of the church." (A. C. 8998.) This doctrine 
I firmly believe is true, and ought to be religiously observed. 
For conjugial love is the crown of all loves, and, in the divine 
providence of the Lord, is the purest love in the church. And 
hence the welfare of the church will require the strictest atten- 
tion to be paid in forming the marriage relation. 

In the case of my first marriage, two general conditions of the 
church may be alluded to. 1st. There were but very few young 
people attached to the new church ; and often only one family 
residing in a place, and not another within a hundred miles. 
This early situation of things — much my own — was unfavorable 
to forming marriages in the church. 2nd. Among the first re- 
ceivers of the heavenly doctrines of the new church, the writings 
of Swedenborg were scarce ; and but few were taught much be- 
yond the most general fundamental doctrines of the church. 
But few — as in my case — ever saw the extract given above from 
the Arcana Coelestia, or were early instructed in its doctrine, 
before entering i ;to marriage, the most important relation of life. 
Hence marriages often took place contrary to the doctrine of the 
above extract. But now these conditions are giving way. In 
tho latter particular, it is true, the practice is yet defective 
enough. It has to be admitted, that what true marriage is, is 



THE REV. DAVIP POWELL. 15 

too little taught to the youth of the new church, and too little 
pressed home. But, it is to be hoped, the church will soon 
awaken to the importance of this subject. Not intending to 
write an essay on marriage, I need not dwell on that point here. 
Suffice to say, that, in my own case, although I did not act ac- 
cording to the teaching of the extract alluded to, the two condi- 
tions above mentioned were the principal cause. It was to me, 
in a great measure, the error of ignorance. And most certain 
it is, that the Lord, in mercy, led me in a wonderful manner. 
In this particular, as in all others, the goodness of his providence 
was made manifest. 

It may be well, however, to state, as the mention of a fact, 
that, for the first six years of our married life, my wife manifest- 
ed no disposition to favor the doctrines of the new church. This 
was a source of heartfelt regret. It was so, no doubt, to both 
of us ; and I know I often felt it keenly. Nothing but mutual 
forbearance, patience, and a determination to do the best we 
could, enabled us to get along comfortably together. To this, I 
may add, that she was a woman of excellent and strong mind, 
well informed for the day, and of most strictly honest and virtu- 
ous principles. I endeavored to be governed by the same. But, 
after about six years, she began to read the writings of Sweden- 
borg with interest. ^This was to me a most welcome fact. The 
first favorable opportunity, after reading for some time, she re- 
ceived the rite of baptism into the new church, at the hand of 
the Rev. R. De Charms, and continued an orderly and affection- 
ate member ever after. And I have the strongest reason to be- 
lieve she is now, and will remain to be, an angel of the new an- 
gelic heaven. This union with the church gave me the utmost 
satisfaction in view of our children ; for I had become awakened 
to the importance of religious harmony between parents for the 
benefit of the offspring. Who can well imagine the deleterious 
effects of parental dissentions in religious matters on the minds 
of children ? This alone should cause persons of different reli- 
gions to pause well before contracting marriage. But I will not 
pursue this point any farther here ; for the leading object of my 
narrative is to state, for the reader's benefit, the operations of 



16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

my life in coming into the ministry of the new church, and while 
discharging the sacred duties of that office. 

I have stated the impression I was under as to the duty of a 
minister's supporting himself while preaching, as my father had 
done ; and, for this purpose, I had learned the trade of tanning : 
also the difficulty of following that business — tetterous hands? 
&c. When this was discovered, I was induced to cast about in 
mind for some other pursuit in life. My father had been taken 
into the spiritual world, and I was thus deprived of the benefit 
of his wise counsel. 

At this juncture, a warm friend of my father's, an attorney at 

law, (Gen. S ,) applied to me to enter his office as a student 

at law, offering me a rare opportunity, and holding out strong 
inducements, for me to do so, by offering me a profitable part- 
nership, so soon as I could be admitted to practice. The Gene- 
ral was a popular man, and had an extensive practice. Few, 
certainly, ever had fairer offers, in this respect, than I had. 
And, being fired with a desire to make money that I might 
preach, it at first made some impression on my mind. But, 
when I undertook to harmonize the practice of the law with the 
sacred duties of the ministerial office, I was unable to do it. 
And, being determined not to engage in any office or employ- 
ment that would in itself be inconsistent with the ministerial 
office, and viewing the law in this light, I determined not to ac- 
cept my kind friend's liberal offer. He urged my acceptance, 
until, at length, in a good humored way, but rather more than 
half in earnest, I was induced to quote to him two lines of a 
stanza I had learned, which, I told him, always came into my 
mind, when I thought of becoming a lawyer : 

" If I'm a lawyer, I must lie and cheat; 
For an honest lawyer will get no bread to eat." 

My mind was now made up, that I would not study and practise 
law. 

I next turned my attention in the direction of medicine, and 
went so far as partly to engage with a physician to study with 
him. In fact, I read one volume on anatomy with him. His 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 17 

health, however, failed him, so as to cause him to quit practice. 
And, not feeling much inclination or adaptation to the practice 
of medicine, and seeing no flattering prospect of rapid accumula- 
tion of wealth bj it, I easily gave up this study at this time. 

Now all that took place in reference to the study of law and 
medicine, occurred before my marriage, whilst I was engaged in 
teaching school and studying as well as I could. 

Immediately after my marriage, I resolved to make a trial of 
my trade, and see what could be done. Accordingly, a site for 
the purpose was fixed upon, on part of the homestead farm. 
Early in the spring, I commenced in earnest to sink my vats 
and erect suitable buildings. What little funds I could command 
and borrow, were invested in stock. Being anxious to push the 
business forward as rapidly as possible, I commenced working in 
my stock before I was prepared for grinding bark to make liquor 
for handling my leather in. I did this upon the positive assu- 
rance of the carpenter that he would have the mill in readiness 
for me when I wanted to use it. I need not detail particulars 
too minutely. Suffice it to say, that the carpenter disappointed 
me — Saturday night came — and no mill was ready. The result 
was, my hides and skins were so damaged, that I never realized 
over first cost out of the leather made of them. All my labor 
was lost, and other inconveniences, resulting from the loss, were 
added to my embarrassments. 

About four years of my time were spent in this place and bu- 
siness, in zealous efforts to make money: but, strange to tell, 
every effort proved ineffectual. Loss, sickness and death suc- 
ceeded each other ; and all combined prevented any accumula- 
tion of money. During this period, our first child, a sweet little 
boy of a year old, was taken from us into the spiritual world. 

At the close of this period, I could not see that my worldly 
preparation for preaching was any more advanced than at the 
beginning; while the conviction that it was my duty to preach, 
not only remained as strong as ever, but had, if possible, even 
grown stronger. This fact pressed heavily upon my mind. 
These four years were indeed a severe school to my natural 
man, but not yet sufficiently so to correct me of the error, as I 



18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

now most firmly believe, into which I had fallen. It is true, I 
did not then see it, as it has since been rationally manifested to 
my mind ; and I now believe I was thus permitted by Divine 
Providence to pursue my course in freedom and in accordance 
with what appeared to me to be reason, and not to succeed, as 
the only way of bringing me to look at the truth, and to do it, 
in rational light. I have every reason for believing so. 

Loss, sickness and death have been alluded to as the combined 
cause which prevented success in . the accumulation of money. 
Such things were indeed our lot, and seemed to be the cause of 
want of success. But still, when closely looked into, their 
amount does not appear to be sufficient to have produced the 
effect. By this I mean, that the natural drawbacks do not seem 
sufficient to have entirely overcome the efforts of honesty, indus- 
try, frugality and sobriety ; for all these, I feel persuaded, were 
exercised. May it not in truth be said, that I had imbibed an 
error in reference to the duty of a minister in the new church 
and of his support, and that I was attempting to carry out that 
error in my life in the church. This was not orderly. So, up- 
on the principle laid down in the A. C. 5703, "The Lord is or- 
der itself ; " hence, "where he is present, there is order; and, 
where order is, there he is present; " my efforts could not have 
the divine blessing of the Lord's presence. For my principles 
were disorderly, though my external life might be upright and 
honest. Had I succeeded, I now believe, I should have been in 
great danger of being confirmed in a very great, if not a fatal 
error, and, so far as my influence extended, should have infested 
our beloved church with the same. But the Lord, in mercy, did 
not permit it. And how greatly does my heart now rejoice, 
that, by his kind providence, he led me by a way that I knew 
not of, though, at the time, it caused me so much mental anxiety 
and suffering ! And, being fully and rationally convinced of my 
mistake, I do now hereby most solemnly protest against my 
youthful error. 

Having failed to accumulate any amount of wealth by tanning 
where I was first located, and not having any legal title to the 
property on whioh we lived, — it belonging to my father's estate, 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 19 

— we determined to change our location in the spring of 1830, 
and try fortune in another part of the state. In accordance 
with this determination, we moved to the town of Springhorough, 
in the county of Warren. The first intention was to enter into 
partnership with a relative of mine, and erect another tannery. 
Property for this purpose was purchased and the work com- 
menced. But, soon after this arrangement, or about the time of 
it, an elderly quaker gentleman purchased the adjoining pro- 
perty for a private family residence. Not liking the smell of a 
tanyard so near him, he very earnestly and urgently protested 
against it. At length, we yielded to his entreaty — he purchas- 
ing our property at a small advance, and paying a trifle for our 
trouble and disappointment. 

This summer was spent without doing much. In the fall of 
the same year, I commenced teaching school again, which I con- 
tinued to do for more than two years. But the income from this 
source was small, and not likely soon to place me in the desired 
and aimed at condition for preaching, which was constantly 
pressing upon me as an imperative duty. After teaching some- 
thing more than a year, I became a partner in a mercantile esta- 
blishment, in the village in which we resided. The nature of the 
copartnership which I formed was, that I was to be the entire 
owner of the iron and hardware department, and my partner of 
the dry goods and groceries. One clerk was employed between 
us, which, with my personal attention mornings and evenings, 
enabled me to continue my school as before. This connection 
was continued nearly a year ; but, after expenses were paid, I 
found I was not making any thing. I did not blame either my 
partner or clerk ; for I have reason to believe both were natu- 
rally honest men. 

Within the first year of my storekeeping enterprise, an offer 
was made me to purchase out my stock in trade, which I gladly 
accepted, and which was, in fact, the most profitable sale I had 
yet made. I was offered the Cincinnati wholesale price for what 
I had, to which was added one half the carriage from Cincinnati 
to Springborough. This offer was an advance upon what I had 
paid ; for I had purchased of the iron manufacturers in Pitts- 



20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

burgh at prices considerably lower than those articles brought in 
Cincinnati. By this arrangement I not only advanced my very 
small amount of cash a little, but got clear of a business that had 
not proven profitable to me. 

I was again out of business — except my school, which I con- 
tinued to teach until about the middle of the summer of 1833. 
My school, at this time, was in the country, about one mile and 
a half south-east of the village. This distance in pleasant wea- 
ther, I always walked, thus gaining a favorable season for medi- 
tation and reflection. During these morning and evening walks, 
while alone, my passing life was constantly before me. The 
very little advance I had made towards the worldly preparation 
for preaching I had erected in my mind and set out to make, 
harassed me much. I had been married between seven and eight 
years. I had labored hard to gain honestly something of the 
world, but almost nothing had been gained. I had virtually 
"toiled all the night, and had taken nothing" — doubtless be- 
cause I had not "cast the net on the right side of the ship." I 
had very often devoutly prayed to the Lord, that, if preaching 
was not my use, I might be delivered from the strong impression 
I was under that it was ; but, if it was my use, that the door 
might open to me to enter into it in an orderly way. Very often 
indeed, in prayer, did I offer up the verse of the poet : 

"If I am right, thy grace impart 
Still in the right to stay; 
If I am wrong, teach my heart 
To find that better way." 

It mattered not how often, or how earnestly, I prayed to be 
delivered from the impression that it was my duty to preach, no 
deliverance came ; but, if possible, it grew stronger and stronger. 
Indeed, I became greatly puzzled to know what to do. New- 
churchmen are often called Swedenborgians, and have been sup- 
posed by many persons to be partly if not wholly crazy. Had 
persons known what was passing in my mind, they might almost 
have charged insanity upon me, so intense were my feelings on 
the matter. Often have I wept bitterly at my situation. All 
my efforts to accumulate but a moderate fortune, for the purpose 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 21 

proposed, had thus far failed. I could really see myself no 
nearer the preparation marked out for preaching, than I was 
seven or eight years earlier in my life ; while some of my warm 
friends had invited me to enter the ministry, and even urged me 
to do it. But this invitation I always declined, without ever 
assigning the reason ; although I might intimate that I thought 
of doing so some day. Such was my situation at this period of 
my life. Words fail me to describe the intense anxiety and 
agony of soul which I then endured. 

Things remarkable in tales of fiction often commence some- 
what on this wise : " On a beautiful morning in the month of 
May, with not a cloud to obstruct the light blue sky — not a 
breeze to disturb the stillness of the rapidly expanding leaves, 
just clothing afresh in living green the recently chilled and win- 
ter-stricken forest — filled with the sweet, shrill and joyous music 
of the feathered songsters as its rightful inhabitants." But, dear 
reader, such too may be the opening of a tale of truth — of living 
reality, and of its conscious development to the writer's soul, 
however long it may have been preparing there in the unerring 
leadings of a merciful and wise Providence, or however gradual 
may have been its maturing after its development commenced. 
For it was on just such a morning as alluded to, in the same 
month, and surrounded as briefly described, that the train of 
thought I am about to relate took place. 

We had taken our frugal morning meal early, as was our cus- 
tom ; and, the portion of domestic turns falling to me to do hav- 
ing been attended to, I left my cheerful little family for my 
daily labors in the country school room. The road thither passed 
by well tilled fields and pleasant groves, the beauty of which was 
well calculated to awaken gratitude, in the passer by, to the 
Author of the Universe. It was a place and time suitably 
adapted to thoughtful meditation. I was thus engaged. As I 
moved along, I fell into thoughts, which daily visited me, about 
my pecuniary condition and my solemn duty to preach. As 
often as this theme had arrested my attention and caused me to 
meditate, never before did it press more heavily upon me. I 
became so absorbed in the subject, that times and spaces passed 



22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

unobserved. I had felt distressed in mind before in reference to 
the matter, but never more keenly than this morning. I had 
prayed often, but never more deeply, inwardly and sincerely 
than now. I felt truly at a loss to know what was best to do. 
I had for years, as I then thought, been endeavoring to look to 
the Lord that I might be led by his kind providence ; but, as I 
can now see, it was only looking to and asking the Lord to con- 
firm me in my own 'plans — to establish me in my own errors. 
For I had fixed in my mind, that I must first obtain a respecta- 
ble sum of money, and then preach. I had never examined the 
matter to see whether this was the true position or not. I sim- 
ply adopted it as the proper course, because my father was so 
circumstanced, and did so, before me. But the fact should not 
be overlooked, that, in my father's day, there were but few iso- 
lated receivers of new-church doctrines, and no societies to sus- 
tain ministers in the orderly and efficient discharge of their offi- 
cial duties. But the principle, as I now firmly believe, is & false 
one, that the minister should sustain himself by secular employ- 
ment, whilst engaged in performing his sacred duties ; and hence 
the Lord, in mercy, did not permit me to be confirmed in the 
error. In desiring to be led of the Lord, I had not asked to see 
whether the principle I was endeavoring to practise, was correct 
or not ; and, if correct, that I might be led to see it ; and, when 
seen to be not correct, to abandon it. No, in all my desires, 
prayers, meditations, I had not that particular once called in 
question, as possibly wrong. But, during the morning above 
alluded to, almost in the agony of despair, I suppose I felt more 
like yielding myself entirely to the leadings of Divine Providence 
than I had ever done before. I do not, when now writing, re- 
recollect what I thought distinctly about my plan of obtaining 
money first. I, however, remember vividly, that I was brought 
into a state bordering on despair of being able to accomplish it, 
and of being exceedingly perplexed to know what was best to do. 
I still felt like putting trust in the Lord. While in this state of 
intense anxiety, and sometime before reaching the school house, 
the divine language of the Word was brought up to my mind, 
"I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the 



THE KEV. DAVID POWELL. 23 

righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." (Ps. xxxvii, 25.) 
This passage came as though an audible voice had spoken it. 
The impression was so strong, that I unconsciously stopped still 
in the road. I stood for a moment in silent amazement and the 
profoundest meditation. I seemed to myself to inquire, What is 
this I hear ? While thus standing and thinking, the divine words 
of our Saviour recurred to me, with a most solemn and impres- 
sive force, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righ- 
teousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt., 
vi, 33.) 

I soon resumed my walk to the school house, reflecting on 
these passages of Scripture. For aught I know, my duties as a 
teacher were this day as faithfully attended to as on any other 
day. But I remember very well that these passages were con- 
stantly in my mind that day. And, during my walk home in the 
evening, they formed the pleasing subject of my meditation. 
The more I reflected upon these truths of the Holy Word, the 
more my mind inclined to give up the idea of obtaining wealth 
before I would commence preaching. I continued reflecting up- 
on and digesting the thoughts suggested by the above passages 
of Scripture, and completed my engagement in school about the 
time of the following harvest. This took place in the summer of 
1833. The school being closed, it was concluded that the vaca- 
tion should be spent in visiting our relatives in Steubenville — 
the place of my nativity — and its vicinity. Some time in Au- 
gust, we set out on this journey — met with a cordial welcome, 
and every thing passed off very pleasantly. 

Where we had been living for over three years preceding, — in 
the village of S., — there was no new-church society, a want much 
felt. During this visit, we met, not only our new-church rela- 
tives, but also the other receivers who belonged to the little soci- 
ety which had clustered round my father, to which he had 
preached, and for which I had acted several years as lay-reader. 
Renewed contact with this sphere, added fresh fuel to the flame 
already burning in my bosom. It became quite manifest to me 
that my mind had, for sometime past, been undergoing a change 
in reference to my pecuniary preparation for preaching. I had, 



2± AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

in fact, under the influences of the passages of the Word already 
frequently alluded to, about abandoned that lea: and was now 
seriously meditating on my other qualifications and preparations. 
When I turned my thoughts in this direction, I felt greater 
drawbacks than I had supposed, while thinking so much about 
worldly accumulation. I felt keenly the defect of my limited 
education, and dreaded the idea of dishonoring in any respect so 
holy an office. But, above all, the thought of standing up before 
the people as the representative of the Lord, struck me with the 
greatest dread. Limited and imperfect as my information was 
at this time, I had read sufficient to know that the doctrines of 
the new church distinctly taught that ministers do represent the 
Lord by virtue of the priestly principle. (A. C. 3670.) For me 
to undertake to represent the Lord, was truly most embarrass- 
ing. I still felt desirous, if the will of Divine Providence should 
favor, to be delivered from my preaching impression ; but no de- 
liverance came. Although I felt a shrinking from the awful re- 
sponsibility of so sacred an office, still my strong feeling of duty 
urged me to accept it. I could, in fact, see no way to escape, 
and still retain in my bosom an approving conscience. 

Up to this time, persons who could only look on my outside, 
might have been justified in calling me both poor and stingy. 
For so anxious was I to increase my funds, that I did little or 
nothing, by means of money, for the support of the church. I 
would not even purchase the few books I needed to read, but 
depended upon borrowing, and felt decidedly too poor to support 
a new-church periodical. But this course I was permitted to 
pursue, I now believe, as the most suitable way of teaching me 
a salutary lesson — of teaching me that it is more blessed to give 
than to receive ; and that, what measure a man metes, the same 
is measured to him again ; and that to do good for the sake of 
use, never impoverishes the doer. I was by degrees taught 
greater confidence in the Lord — that, by making a little cake 
first to the Lord's prophet Elijah, "the barrel of meal wasted 
not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of 
the Lord which he spake by the hand of Elijah." For, during 
all the time that I was thus saving of my little sum of money, I 



THE EEV. DAVID POWELL. 25 

was only able to earn from $150.00 to $250.00 per annum; or 
from .$13.00 to $22.00 per month; and to ind myself and fa- 
mily out of that. But the youthful reader may be told, that 
that sum was about equal then to double the same sum twenty-five 
years afterwards. In some localities, I suppose such would be 
the case. Still, that sum was very small, considering the mag- 
nitude of the use performed, and the labor required — instructing 
and educating the rising generation. An average salary for a 
teacher then was, about $15.00 per month, or $180.00 a year. 
Let the fact just stated be kept in mind. 

During the visit just alluded to, commencing in August, 1833, 
while in Steubenville, at the house of a brother, I was very press- 
ingly solicited to open a select school in that place. After ma- 
ture deliberation, I was induced to accede to this proposition. 
For the truth is, I had, by means of the severe trials of mind 
through which I had passed, given up the idea of accumulating 
money before I would preach. I had now, in an humble attempt 
to look to and confide in the Lord, determined to submit the 
matter of my preaching to the decision of my brethren. If they 
said that I was qualified — that my religious character was suffi- 
ciently good, and my services were needed, I would hesitate no 
longer to enter upon the duties of that sacred office. And this 
I resolved to do at the next annual meeting of the Western New 
Church Convention, which was to take place the ensuing year. 
In the mean time, I determined to apply myself to the study of 
the doctrines of the church, as closely as the arduous duties of 
my school would allow. I also resolved to purchase any book I 
might need, support the new-church periodical then published in 
this country, and give of my small means for any other use that 
might be required. 

With these changed views, and these determinations, I opened 
my school during the month of September. At first, I had only 
about a dozen pupils ; and some of them of but very little pro- 
mise, either of profit to me, or credit to themselves. However, 
I resolved to do my duty by them, to the best of my ability. In 
doing so, I soon had the satisfaction, not only of feeling that I 
had done right, but of seeing my school increase rapidly in num- 



26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

bers and respectability. For, in about three months from the 
time I commenced, I had about seventy children placed under 
my care, and many of them from the most respectable and influ- 
ential families of the place. 

I was urged by many, and yielded to their solicitation, to open 
an evening school for young men and apprentice boys. The in- 
come from my two schools, during the first winter, amounted to 
about seventy-five dollars per month, and within the first year 
to over five hundred dollars. This was at least twice as much as 
I had ever earned in any one year before, and formed a wonder- 
ful contrast with the meagre salaries which I had before realized. 
It is hardly necessary to say that this came to me as a powerful 
argument in favor of the conclusions to which I had come, and 
the resolves I had made in reference to my preaching, and to 
demonstrate that the Lord's words quoted above are true. And 
it may be well to say, that I appropriated, in various ways, in- 
cluding the expenses incurred by attending the convention, about 
fifty dollars for the support of the church. For several years 
afterwards I spent not less than fifty dollars a year for church 
purposes, besides preaching without receiving any thing in return 
for my support. My determination was kept ; for, at the next an- 
nual meeting of the Western Convention, which I attended, I 
preached my first sermon, presented the application for my license 
to preach, signed by the requisite number of receivers, which was 
accepted, and the license granted by a unanimous vote. While 
I felt that I was doing right, I also felt my responsibility greatly 
increased. I felt more than I can express in words. 

But no one who may read the statement I am making, need 
suppose that the trials through which I had passed, up to the 
time I was authorised to preach, — severe as they were, — relieved 
me from sore temptations and painful struggles afterwards. 
Such a supposition would only lead into a mistake. For this 
third period of man's existence has the difficulties of & forty years' 
wilderness journey to endure. He who sets out on his spiritual 
journey, in this period, to the heavenly Canaan, will find evils 
after evils arise, which he must shun, as so many sins against 
God, if he would not perish by the way. For it is only little by 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 27 

little that the inhabitants of the land can be driven out, so that 
it may not be overrun bj wild beasts, multiplying against it. 

I will here relate an incident that took place on my way to 
the convention, at which my license was granted. On my way 
thither, I passed through Columbus, Ohio ; called on an intelli- 
gent and most excellent new-church brother (J. M. E.), and spent 
several hours with him. During our conversation, the subject 
of my preaching was mentioned. This dear friend expressed 
some surprise that I should run the risk of losing my recently 
collected school, by venturing to teach the heavenly doctrines of 
the new dispensation. My reply was, in substance, that I had 
deliberated before I acted, and that I had arrived at the conclu- 
sions to which I had come through too long and painful a pro- 
cess now to turn back. And further, that, if the pupils of my 
school were taken from me on that account, they might go ; my 
determination being, as far as possible, to follow the indications 
of Divine Providence in the matter. 

Other friends, at times, expressed similar fears. At length, 
to some of them I said, that, if I proved faithful to my trust, 
and should then be so reduced as to be compelled to till the hill- 
side with a splinter of wood, instead of an iron hoe, to raise po- 
tatoes, on which to live, and had but a little salt to season them 
with, I should look upon the extremity as necessary, in the lead- 
ings of Divine Providence, for my own, or some one else's, spi- 
ritual good. Bitter as would be the cup of such poverty to my 
natural man, yet my confidence was so strong, that the Lord 
knows best what is for mans good, that I felt it must be taken. 
But oh how thankful I, and those for whom it was my duty to 
provide, should be, that our Heavenly Father's kindness never 
permitted, nor required, such an extremity at our hands ! All 
that has been needful for us, we have received. 

In my understanding, at least, I acknowledged and doctrinally 
believed that the Holy Divine Word is true. In the same way, 
I claimed to receive and believe the theological teachings of Ema- 
nuel Swedenborg. I felt the desire that these truths might so 
enter my will as to become the animating principles of my life. 
In their light, I endeavored to ground the strong confidence I 



28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

have expressed above. Our author teaches, in A. C. 5449, 
"that the truths of the church, without conjunction by good with 
the interior man, regard nothing for an end but gain, by whom- 
soever they are possessed; but, when they are conjoined by good 
with the interior man, they then regard for an end essential good 
and truth — thus the church, the Lord's kingdom, and the Lord 
himself; and, when they regard these things for an end, then 
also a sufficiency of gain is allotted them, according to the Lord's 
words in Matt., ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his jus- 
tice, and all these things shall be added unto you.' (vi, 33.) 
This conjunction I ardently desired, and earnestly sought after, 
and is what I meant by saying, if I only proved faithful to my 
trust. The doctrine of this extract from the A. C, I would fre- 
quently refer to, and often read, as the ground of my trust and 
confidence in the Lord. 

I have mentioned above the prosperous condition of my school, 
and the fears entertained on the part of some of my friends, that 
I might lose it, if I undertook to preach. I returned from the 
convention, which granted my license, to resume the duties of 
my school, with the determinations which have already been al- 
luded to. I mention here, with my kind advice to all my read- 
ers to do the same, that my usual custom was, before engaging 
in school exercises, to offer up to my Heavenly Father my pri- 
vate, solemn and most devout prayer of heart, to have my un- 
derstanding suitably enlightened, — to have complete government 
over myself, — so that I might be able to do justice to every child 
committed to my care, and do for them what would best promote 
their eternal, as well as their temporal good. To carry out the 
spirit of this prayer, in practical life, in a large school of pro- 
miscuous children, — most of them careless and unconcerned, — 
many of them sadly neglected at home and permitted to run wild 
in the streets, — I found to be no easy task. And, if any con- 
scientious man wishes to be tried, let him take a school, as things 
were at the time of which I am now speaking, in a river town 
or city, and I venture the opinion that he will not be disap- 
pointed. But the Lord, in mercy, wonderfully sustained and 
brought me through. 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 29 

My kind but timorous friends were mistaken about the effect 
of my preaching upon my school ; it did not take my pupils from 
me. And I record it here, not from any feelings of egotism, 
but as the simple statement of an unvarnished fact, that I 
became one of the most popular teachers in the city. This repu- 
tation I retained as long as I continued in the profession. I 
never found any loss for children to occupy all my desks, num- 
bering from sixty to eighty. 

This fact furnishes an argument to show the folly, the selfish 
blindness, or ignorance, of those who bury their religion, through 
fear of losing worldly advantage. Let a Newchurchman live 
the charity of his religion in his office, business or employment, 
and he may then live the piety without fear of losing any thing, 
even in the eyes of the world. But, even if he did lose some 
little worldly advantage, how could that loss compare with his 
spiritual gain ? Not even as a grain of sand by the sea-side to the 
mighty ocean itself. 

Soon after the matter of my preaching was settled, as has 
been related, — finding ourselves in possession of a small fund, 
which was continually increasing from the income of my school, 
— we deemed it advisable to fix ourselves in a little home that 
might be called our own. The plan proposed also embraced a 
school room, to avoid the inconvenience of renting. But, I con- 
fess, the leading motive with me was, not so much the inconve- 
nience of renting, as what I supposed would be the convenience 
of a place in which to hold our meetings. I soon purchased two 
vacant lots, which it was concluded would answer the purpose. 
One fronted on Market Street, in the western part of the town, 
the other on a street but little improved, just back of the front 
one. On the front street, we erected a comfortable little brick 
dwelling, for family use ; and, on the other one, a small frame 
building, professedly for the use of the school, but, as I have 
said, designed also for a meeting place. We were aided in meet- 
ing these expenses by receiving from my mother something of 
my father's estate. When we took possession of these buildings, 
humble as they were, I had never felt so encouraged in my life. 
The school room would seat about seventy-five or eighty pupils, 
and the places were all taken at once. 

4 



30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

Not long afterwards, I determined to commence preaching 
there. Few, however, besides my own relatives and friends, at- 
tended my preaching. I only occupied the house for that purpose 
once in two weeks, usually preaching in the country the other sab- 
bath. My country appointments, except at my mother's, were 
often well attended. In town, I thought our place of meeting 
was too obscure and humble ; but other things may have been 
the cause of the thin attendance. 

In about a year, or a little more, after commencing to teach 
and preach in the new school house, objections began to be raised 
as to the location of my school ; it is considered too far out, and 
not near enough the centre of the town. At length, I was in- 
duced to move my school down town to the large basement room 
of the Episcopal Church. I hesitated but little to do so, as there 
was so little interest taken in my preaching where w r e were. I 
soon found a purchaser for my school house, who converted it 
into a weave-shop, and filled it with looms. 

Our meetings in town now became private, being held in our 
little private parlor, but attended much as formerly. The base- 
ment of the Episcopal Church was occupied by me two years, or 
over; when it was objected to, on account of its want of light, 
and of its supposed dampness, it being about half its depth be- 
low the surface of the earth. Whether their ideas were well 
founded, or not, it matters not ; people supposed they were, and 
it was no easy task to remove them. This brought me to the 
determination to change my location again, and build another 
school house for the same purposes which I had in view in build- 
ing the first. We resolved, in making this change, to look well 
to the suitableness of the location, and to erect a decent build- 
ing. Where we had first purchased was in the manufacturing 
district of the place, and business at this time being good, we 
readily found a purchaser for our property. This being disposed 
of, we were ready to purchase again. We were soon suited ; for 
an excellent lot for the purpose was met with on Fifth Street, 
near Market Street, and at a fair price. And, what to me was 
desirable, it had an eastern front. It was purchased at once, 
and workmen soon engaged to put another story on the house 
already on the lot, for dwelling purposes and others to erect a 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 31 

new, large and commodious school house, that, when completed, 
would seat, quite comfortably, over two hundred persons. This 
building, for the school, cost us about eight hundred dollars. I 
say for the school, as it was in part for that purpose, although 
my chief object was to have a place for public worship. 

A few months found us in our new home, and in our new 
school house. Very soon after this, it was determined to try 
public preaching in this new place. My school was most pro- 
mising; but my preaching here was but little more encouraging 
than it had been in the other house. To me, this seemed very 
strange ; for I felt that I was called to preach, and that I now 
w T as obeying that call. I had caused to be erected, at my own 
expense, a comfortable house, paid for the fuel to w r arm it in 
the winter, paid for keeping it in order for our Sunday meetings, 
and preached gratuitously. I would toil all day in my large 
school, and sometimes sit up till after midnight to study and 
write my sermon — which, after all, but few came to hear. 
Any one w T ho may have been in a similar situation, will know 
something of my feelings. Why is it so ? I would ask myself. 
Have I been mistaken ? Is my call to preach, after all, really 
not from the Lord? This apparent indifference manifested in 
regard to my preaching, I felt as a sore trial to my natural man. 
Still I had an approving conscience, for I had an inward con- 
viction that it was my duty to preach. 

And the divine words of Our Saviour " A prophet is not with- 
out honor, save in his own country, and in his own house," 
(Matt., xiii, 57,) would often afford me comfort, and serve to en- 
courage me to press forward, perform my duty, and trust in the 
Lord. For, during school vacations, I was generally invited to 
perform some little missionary service, which called me some 
distance from home. And it was observed, that, on all such oc- 
casions, the meetings were numerously attended, and the dis- 
courses almost always appeared to be well received, excepting 
on the part of those, who, being attracted to the place by the 
novelty of hearing what they were pleased to term, a " Sweden- 
borg preacher " were strongly attached to the dogmas of the old 
theology. The fact of such attention and apparent success, 



32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

tended greatly to " Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the 
feeble knees." (Isa., xxxv, 3.) The refreshings of these short 
missionating tours were something like the oases in an arid 
desert. 

The school continued prosperous until early in the spring of 
1838, although my preaching at home appeared to make but 
little impression. At the time here mentioned, I had a partner 
in the school, T. A. P., Esq., an excellent man, and one to whom 
I felt warmly attached. He was then a zealous member of the 
methodist church. We, of course, had many religious conver- 
sations, but always with mutual forbearance and in much kind- 
ness. With pleasure I record the fact here, that he is now, and 
has for years been, an orderly and devoted receiver of the doc- 
trines of the new church. 

But to return to the spring of 1838. At this time, fresh tri- 
als came upon me, wisely guided in Divine Providence, no doubt, 
for my spiritual good. Early one morning, just as I was about 
going to open the school, feeling thirsty, I took a moderate drink 
of cold water from a neighboring well. In a few minutes, I felt 
a coldness and a weight like a lump of lead in the pit of the sto- 
mach. That I was poisoned was quickly suggested to me. I 
felt considerably uneasy, and my family was greatly alarmed. 
But how could I be poisoned, was the question. The only sup- 
position was, that the well had been poisoned, and that perhaps 
I was the first victim. Our family physician was called imme- 
diately, and the case examined by him, which resulted in his de- 
cision that I was not poisoned. He commenced his course of 
treatment, but, so rapid was the progress of disease, that, long 
before midnight, I was completely delirious. A speedy resort 
to phlebotomy gave me partial relief, and brought me to a 
flighty consciousness. The best medical (allopathic) treatment 
then available, the most attentive and kindest nursing on the 
part of my family and friends, under the concurring blessing of 
Divine Providence, so far restored me to health, that I was able 
to be out in about ten days. My sickness was an obstruction 
of the gall duct, caused by the formation of biliary calculi, and 
was extremely painful. 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 33 

Another change was now before us. For our family physician, 
a man eminent in his profession at the time, and a consulting 
physician, both expressed it as their deliberately formed opi- 
nion, that, if I continued to confine myself as much, and labor 
as hard, as I had been doing for the few previous years — teach- 
ing and preaching — I should induce on myself a permanently 
seated disease, especially of the liver, from which I could not 
recover. Their advice was, either to give up my school or 
preaching, at once. This advice I determined to follow. Then 
came the struggle as to which it should be. I loved to teach 
children as well as to preach to a congregation mostly of adults. 
I had a wife and several young and helpless children to provide 
for ; had never received any temporal support in return for my 
preaching, and had never looked to that use as any means of 
pecuniary aid to my family. To give it up now, I felt would be 
doing like what our Saviour alludes to, where he says, " No man, 
having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for 
the kingdom of God." (Luke, ix, 62.) I felt it would be look- 
ing back, and going back, an idea I could not entertain. Al- 
though I loved my school, and derived from it a very comforta- 
ble support, it was soon decided that it should be abandoned. 
Consequently, the partnership with my dear friend, T. A. P., 
Esq., was dissolved, to take effect from the first of April, which 
was only two or three weeks distant. Our dwelling house and 
school house were rented to him, that he might continue the 
school without interruption. 

What was now to be done, was the next question. It may 
be well to say, before recording the new openings of Divine Pro- 
vidence to us, that the study of the Word and the writings of the 
church had caused a great change in my mind on many points. 
I was now fully and rationally convinced, that true order in the 
new church required that the minister should be qualified, set 
apart, and devoted to the uses of his office, and should receive 
an adequate pecuniary support to sustain him in it. Although 
I did not exactly think so once, the light of the Word and the 
writings of the church, enabled me to see it in quite clear light. 
And years of study since, have only served to show me more 



34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

and more of the reason of its order and necessity. The truth is, 
while preaching in my own school house, as I have stated, the 
conclusion was formed that want of true external order in the 
church, or rather the society at S — , was quite as much the cause 
of failure, as the want of a prophet's honor in his own country. 
The minister not only earned his own pecuniary support, but 
sustained all the expenses of the society for the support of public 
worship. All, the most of them did, was to give a kind of com- 
plimentary attendance on the meetings. It cost them nothing, 
and the privilege was valued accordingly. The old adage could 
be applied: " Come easy, go easy ; " or, " Come light, go light" 
The principle of the Divine Word was not, at least formally, ac- 
knowledged in our worship: " Freely ye have received, freely 
give;" and, " The laborer is worthy of his meat." And no at- 
tempt was made to reduce it to practice. And, if the apostolic 
instruction be true — " To remember the words of the Lord Je- 
sus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive" — 
this blessing could, at most, be claimed only on one side. 

I do not mean, however, to be understood, that there was any 
thing intentionally wrong on either part or with any one ; I only 
regard the error, to which I have alluded, as a kind of constitu- 
tional defect, in which we had grown up, and sometimes, like 
physical disease, thrown off or overcome with much difficulty. 
For I am free to say, that some among the few of the society 
stood ready to render such pecuniary aid to the church as they 
thought it required. But I do not think there was a rational 
understanding of the true law which should govern in such mat- 
ters. With some, at least, I have no doubt it is better under- 
stood now. The want of acknowledging the correct principle, 
and of acting out that principle as far as possible in our external 
organization and life, was the chief cause of not succeeding bet- 
ter. So I now believe. For there was no true representative 
ultimate of order, into which an influx from the Lord through 
the new heavens could flow, as seed sown in good ground, so as 
to take root downwards and bear fruit upwards — u that tiny 
might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, 
that he might be glorified." (Isa., lxi, 3.) 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 35 

The doctrines of the new church teach, "It is to be observed, 
that there is a church in the heavens as well as on earth; for 
there also is the Word ; there are temples also, and sermons de- 
livered in them, and ministerial and priestly offices ; for all an- 
gels were once men, and their departure out of the world was 
only a continuation of their life ; therefore they are also perfect- 
ed in love and wisdom, every one according to the degree of the 
affection of truth and good which he took with him out of the 

world The reason why a church cannot subsist in 

the heavens, unless there is a church on earth in conjunction 
with it, is, because heaven, where angels are, and the church, 
where men are, act as one, like the internal and external in man ; 
and the internal in man cannot subsist in its state, unless an ex- 
ternal be conjoined with it; for an internal without an external, 
is like a house without a foundation ; or like seed upon the ground 
and not in the ground ; thus like any thing without a root ; in a 
word, like a cause without an effect, in which it may exist." 
(Ap. Rev. 533.) 

But some of our readers may wonder why we introduce such 
matter here, not seeing any connection it has with our biogra- 
phy. It has a connection with it. Hence our answer is, that a 
great change had gradually taken place in our minds, from a 
study of the Word and the writings of the church, in reference 
to the order of the church, the ministerial office, and the support 
of the ministry. And as a change was now to take place in our 
pursuits of life, we have thought proper to connect the other 
change with it, and briefly allude to the authority and grounds 
of that change. 

From the extract just given, and to which very many of simi- 
lar import might be added, it may be seen how necessary it is 
for the church on earth to be in conjunction with the church in 
heaven, that they may " act as one." Hence there should be 
just such order and forms in the church on earth as there is in 
heaven, so far as things on earth can be like things in heaven. 
On earth, they should not be different, or in opposition to what 
they are in heaven, or they cannot "act as one." Hence the 
great utility and necessity there is to observe strictly the law of 



36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

representation in making provision for all public divine worship : 
because such law of representation is part and parcel of that very 
universal divine law of correspondence between the soul and body 
of creation, by which, not only the internal and the external of 
the church, or in general spiritual and natural things, are made 
to act as one, but the latter are produced or exist from the for- 
mer, and the former subsist in the latter. 

But here we will only speak of the preacher, or priest, and of 
his support. He, too, should be in the church on earth like the 
priest in heaven, that he may u act as one" with him. We 
mean, by this, that both should come into and act in the same 
function in harmony, by virtue of the priestly office, however dif- 
ferent the personal state of the one on earth may be from the 
one in heaven. For " all priests, whosoever they are, and of 
whatsoever quality they may be, represent the Lord, by virtue 
of the priestly principle. . . . The priestly function is holy, 
whatsoever may be the nature and quality of the person who mi- 
nisters therein." (See A. C. 3670.) The office, then, makes 
the priest, and not merely his personal quality. Hence his offi- 
cial acts in the church on earth should be so done as to act as 
one with the priestly ministrations in heaven; and therefore 
should be done representatively, significatively, or correspon- 
dent^. And the office, and the person ministering in it, should 
be regarded in the church on earth as the same are regarded in 
the church in heaven, so far as the distinctive natures of the two 
worlds will admit. 

In the work entitled Heaven and Hell, we have a chapter 
"Concerning Divine Worship in Heaven," in which may be 
found this passage: "All the preachers are appointed by the 
Lord, and derive the gift of preaching from their divine appoint- 
ment ; nor are any others allowed to teach in the temples of hea- 
ven.'' Just so it should be in the church on earth. 

Should it be asked, Who shall appoint preachers in the church 
on earth? We answer, — as things should be done in the church 
of the natural world, as they are done in the church of the spi- 
ritual world, that is, in the body of the church as in the soul of 
the church, so far as the distinctive natures of the two worlds 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 37 

will admit, and as in this lower world, or on the earth, things 
are in "the ultimates of divine order," "which ultimate things 
that are called things natural," (Ap. Rev. 148,) "consist of" 
those "representatives and significatives " in which "all power 
resides," and by which, therefore, " the Lord redeems and saves 
men from himself in ultimates," (Ap. Ex. 31,) so that, while the 
Lord appoints the preachers actually in heaven, he must needs, 
now he has ascended far above the heavens, appoint them only 
representatively on earth, — the clergy ; as the Lord's now extant 
earthly representatives, should do it. And as in heaven they 
" derive the gift of preaching from their divine appointment," so 
on earth, "because they are to teach doctrine from the Word 
concerning the Lord," they should derive that gift from being 
"inaugurated by the promise of the holy spirit, and by the re- 
presentation of its translation," (Can., ch. 4-7,) or, as it is else- 
where authoritatively taught us, they should derive it from the 
Lord mediately by "their ordination to the ministry," (U. T. 
146,) in the representative ceremony of " the imposition of hands." 
(D. L. W. 220.) 

And when ecclesiastical matters are permitted by the laity to 
be attended to according to the instruction from heaven, given 
in the little work "The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doc- 
trines," in the chapter " Of Ecclesiastical and Civil Government," 
that " Governors appointed over those things amongst men which 
relate to heaven, or ecclesiastical affairs, are called priests, and 
their office is called priesthood," (314, see whole chapter,) they 
will be better attended to than they have been or are now. Mis- 
takes may occur, errors may be committed ; but they will not be 
likely to be of a serious nature, and will not be so difficult to cor- 
rect. So we now believe. 

Then, as there should be ministers in the church, they should 
be supported by the church. In heaven, the law of support for 
every individual, preacher and all, is, that no one is "influenced 
by the love of gain for the sake of his maintenance, because all 
the necessaries of life are given them freely; their habitations, 
their clothes, and their food." (H. and H. 393.) "All things 
whatsoever which the angels possess, they hold as gifts from the 

5 



38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

Lord, and they are supplied with every thing they need." (H. 
and H. 190.) ' 

Now this law of maintenance in heaven, where all is spirit- 
ual, where times and spaces do not exist, as they do on earth, 
is the same when applied to preachers as when applied to others. 
So it should be in the church on earth, that both may act together 
as one. The law which applies to the support of every member 
of society, applies to the preacher. By this we mean, that each 
active useful member of the community, receives his support 
from the community to which he performs his use. For instance, 
the physician receives his support from the community for the 
use he performs by means of his medical skill and service. So 
the merchant, the mechanic, the laborer, and, indeed, every 
office, business and employment, is sustained by the community 
which receives the uses. And why should not the preacher? 
We believe he should. He should be sustained in his spiritual 
use to the community, according to the law that all should be 
sustained according to the use they perform. In this way the 
preacher would not be paid for his preaching, as by a civil con- 
tract, but he would receive of the free-will offerings according to 
his use. He would not be treated, as is often the case, by per- 
sons providing first not only for their necessities, but the grati- 
fication of all luxuries, and then, if they felt that they had any- 
thing to spare, would give a little of the leavings to the preacher, 
instead of making an offering first to the Lord, of the first fruits 
of harvest, &c. 

It is perhaps time I should return to the main thread of my 
narrative ; for I have said enough to let the reader know the 
great change the study of the Word and the writings of Sweden- 
borg had made on my mind in reference to church order and the 
ministry. I will however add, that my confidence in the Lord 
is so strong that I would go now much farther in the application 
of the principle I have mentioned, than I would have gone at the 
period when the change of which I am about to speak took place. 
I am strongly inclined to believe that quite a small society, with 
even moderate means, by adopting true order in the matter, 
rationally understood, and acting together as one man, could 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 39 

support a minister in the discharge of the uses of his office. To 
do so, spiritual things should be placed above natural things, the 
kingdom of heaven should be sought first. In a word, a right 
estimate should be put upon temporal possessions ; all worldly 
accumulations should be regarded for their use, and applied to 
use; and the first and highest use to which they should look 
should be suitable and orderly provision for spiritual, heavenly 
life. Let this be the case, and then let each member of the soci- 
ety, on each returning Sabbath, cast into the treasury of the 
Lord according to ability, in humble acknowledgment of the 
Lord, and of the divine truth, that all good, temporal as well as 
spiritual, comes from Him. Then let the minister receive the 
free-will offerings in the same spirit ; so that the Lord may be 
really in the midst, and thus be made the all and in all of his 
church on earth, as well as of his church in heaven. Let even 
a small society select a true, humble, orderly minister — let the 
members live the new-church doctrines in a life of charity in 
their offices, business, or employments, through the week, and 
then do on Sunday as we have mentioned above, and we venture 
to say they would be sustained by the Lord, and would exert an 
influence in attracting good gentile minds to them, that the church 
has no where yet experienced. 

In the spring of 1838, when I gave up my school, there was, 
I believe, but one society of the new church in the entire West 
that felt able to support a minister, and that one at Cincinnati. 
Individuals and small societies were disposed to do what they 
thought they could in the old way, to support the church and 
sustain missionary preaching. So, when I let go my school, I 
saw no prospect of forming any connection with any society as 
its minister. I weighed anchor in this respect, and let my 
ship put to sea, confiding in the Captain at the helm, and cast 
my bark upon the stream of Divine Providence, in hopes of 
reaching the port of heaven in safety. Although many severe 
gales have been experienced on the voyage, the skill and atten- 
tion of the Commander has never been doubted, and thus far 
the vessel has been, I trust, kept steadily in its course. 

Soon after the separation from my school, the door was opened 



40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

in the divine providence for a temporary engagement which ap- 
peared to accomplish some use. We had a brother-in-law and 
sister, with a family of several children, residing in Marshall 
County, Virginia. Two of their neighbors, old acquaintances 
and warm friends of mine also, united with my brother in desiring 
me to come and instruct their children for a time. This invita- 
tion was at once accepted, as it gave an opportunity for enjoying 
wholesome country air, and at the same time afforded the privi- 
lege of much outdoor exercise. The salary, exclusive of house 
rent, and other privileges, offered by them, was between $425 and 
$500 a year. The arrangements being completed, we reached 
the place, early in April, and took up our residence amongst 
them. Teaching commenced about the first of May. What a con- 
trast it formed ! — ten or twelve quiet children in the country to 
the one hundred and forty noisy creatures just left in the city. 

It is hardly necessary to say, that a w T arm attachment soon 
grew up among us all — parents and children. My brother-in-law 
and family were ardently attached to the new church, but my 
other two friends, Messrs. P. and W. S., once had some knowledge 
of our doctrines, but had fallen in with the principles of Robert 
Owen and Fanny Wright. On this account, their children had 
but little veneration for religious matters. The eldest son of 
W. P. told me, after I had been there about a year, that, when 
we first came, his intention was to spend his Sundays, while 
attending school, in building a pleasure sleigh for the ensuing 
winter. 

Soon after our arrival amongst them, we commenced holding 
private meetings for worship, every Sabbath. We would meet 
at our house one Sunday, and at the house of my brother-in-law 
the next. Our friends, seeing us pass to and fro every Sunday, 
were soon led to inquire after the object of such meeting. 
They were told that we met together for religious worship. The 
request was at once made on their part, that our meetings should 
be made public, which request was cordially granted. I now 
commenced preaching regularly to all who felt disposed to attend, 
and had the satisfaction of seeing the house filled every Sunday. 
In fact, it was the only regular preaching on the bottom for 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 41 

some miles around ; and those who attended appeared to be so 
well satisfied, that they soon began to call it our meeting. "We 
were very soon invited to hold our meeting in a brick school- 
house, that stood not far off on the adjoining farm. But, to pre- 
vent confining myself too closely, as our meetings became public, 
I would consent to preach only once in two weeks. This I conti- 
nued to do as long as I remained in the vicinity, which was about 
eighteen months. And I have every reason to believe that an 
important use was accomplished amongst them, — especially to 
the young, — not only to those who were my day pupils, but also 
to others. For, I believe, most of them became settled believers 
in the truths of Christianity, and warmly attached to those 
truths as taught in the doctrines of the new church, called the 
New Jerusalem. 

Illustrative of the change which took place, from the time I 
commenced preaching, until I left, it may be mentioned, as an 
interesting fact, that the youth who had intended to spend his 
Sundays in sleigh making, became so much engaged in our meet- 
ings, and had such high respect for me, that he never struck a 
stroke on Sunday; and I believe the sleigh was never made. 
And to this fact may be added, that he became, not only a devo- 
ted receiver of our doctrines, but a- full and consistent member 
of the church. Others may have done the same, but unknown 
to me. Although my old friends, Mr. P. and Mr. S., I believe, 
never came fully into the new church, yet I am persuaded, that 
they saw and acknowledged more truth there than in all other 
forms of religion besides. I have often visited their locality 
since leaving them, and have always found them the same kind- 
hearted friends. 

Having completed my engagement in Marshall Co., Ya., in the 
fall of 1839, another change had to be made. By this time, my 
health was completely restored, and I felt, so far as my physical 
ability was concerned, capable of performing much labor. Still I 
had no wish to resume the duties of a large school and of preach- 
ing at the same time. It is true my preaching seemed to be much 
better appreciated and sought after. I had preached frequently in 
Wheeling, Va., and the friends there appeared desirous to have 



42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

my services amongst them. At this juncture of time several 
distinct propositions were made us, some of which, would have in- 
terfered very much with my ministerial duties, and might have 
taken me out of the ministry altogether. The first offer made, 
was a bonus of thirty acres of ground, as an inducement to have 
me establish permanently a high school in the neighborhood in 
which I had been for the last eighteen months. Other induce- 
ments were held out to me to accept the offer, such as a loan of mo- 
ney for twenty years at six per cent, to enable me to put up the 
necessary buildings for such a school. This offer was certainly a 
most liberal one, but I declined accepting it, for several reasons. 
I will only mention two, either of which was sufficient to decide 
the matter. The first and principal one was, that it would inter- 
fere too much with my ministerial duties, as I now viewed the uses 
of that sacred office. The other reason was, the location, though 
a most beautiful one, was in a slave state. 

I was next offered a situation as a partner in a wholesale and 
retail shoe store in the city of Wheeling. My good friend, Mr. 
P., offered to furnish all the capital necessary to purchase the 
first stock in trade, and give us his personal attention until we 
got fairly under way. His eldest son, a noble hearted youth, of 
about nineteen years of age, the one who never made the sleigh 
on Sunday, was proposed as my partner. His father's capital 
and his services, were to be balanced simply by my attention to 
business. We were then to be equal sharers in the profits of 
the concern. It was supposed, by my friend who made the offer, 
that my part of the profit, would be at least two thousand dollars, 
after defraying all necessary expenses. Now, to reject so liberal 
an offer, — made by so warm hearted a friend, — required some- 
thing of a struggle. 

At the same time that the offer just considered was made me, 
another situation was tendered me, by a very dear new-church 
friend in Wheeling. I was invited by him to take charge of a 
select school, numbering twenty-five pupils, and no more ; for 
which I was to receive a compensation of seven hundred and 
fifty dollars per annum. This friend agreed to pay that amount, 
and assume the charge of making the collections himself, and 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 43 

thus relieve me from all such trouble and responsibility. At 
this time, there were a few families residing in Wheeling belong- 
ing to the New Church, who were desirous of having new-church 
preaching, and were willing to contribute according to their abi- 
lities for that use. It was suggested that I should preach on 
Sunday, and receive these contributions in addition to the above 
seven hundred and fifty dollars. But, according to this propo- 
sition, the school was to be made the primary use, and the 
preaching the secondary. This by no means satisfied my views 
or feelings — believing, as I did, that I was called of the Lord to 
preach, and feeling determined, if possible, to make preaching 
my primary use, and, if it were necessary to attend to any thing 
else, to make this only secondary and subsidiary. Inquiry was 
now made as to how much money the families of the New Church 
were paying, or should pay, to schools for the education of their 
children ; and, if I remember correctly, it was about three hun- 
dred dollars a year. It was also ascertained that about two hun- 
dred, or two hundred and fifty dollars, could be contributed for 
the support of preaching. As they had expressed a desire to 
have my ministerial services amongst them, it was proposed to 
them, that, if they would make the uses of the ministry primary 
and the school secondary, I would settle amongst them. I was 
willing to take the contribution mentioned, and to instruct their 
children through the week for what they were paying to other 
schools for the same service. But some of the influential fami- 
lies objected, on the ground that our support would be too limited ; 
and they urged upon me to accept the seven hundred and fifty 
dollars. To settle the matter, it was agreed to refer it to the 
Rev. B. De C, in whom we all had entire confidence, and who 
was soon to be in the city. If he said I ought to take the school 
and preach for them, I would do it. He came ; and, while there, 
the matter was laid before him. He gave it as his opinion, that, 
under all the circumstances of the case, it was not my duty, and 
would not be best, that I should do it. He would have sanc- 
tioned the other proposition — to preach and teach their children 
through the week — as a secondary and temporary arrangement. 
But one of the most wealthy and influential families was afraid to 



44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

enter into such arrangement, lest our support should not be ade- 
quate. Hence both projects were abandoned. 

I was now offered a salary of five hundred dollars a year, if I 
would superintend one of the public schools in Steubenville. But 
this, too, I declined, as it would interfere too much with my mi- 
nisterial duties, which I felt called to perform. Some may sup- 
pose that, in rejecting all these liberal offers, I acted unwisely. 
This may be so, so far as worldly gain was concerned, but in no 
other respect. I had long since rejected all idea of accumula- 
tion as an end, having tried it so many years, only to experience 
painful disappointment. I trust I was now only seeking to know 
my duty, that I might perform it. I was still ready to hear any 
offer that might be made. Brother De Charms, while with us 
in Wheeling, told me that he had received a letter from B. G. 
P., Esq., of Ithaca, N. Y., in which the desire was expressed, 
to have a competent minister to officiate for them, at Danby, 
Ithaca, and other places in the vicinity. He at once suggested 
it as just the place for me. I believe he wrote to Mr. F. on the 
subject, and also soon after met him in the city of New York. 
The result was, that I soon received a letter from the gentleman 
alluded to, containing an offer for me to come and preach for 
them, at a salary of five hundred dollars a year. 

Before arranging to visit them, I received a second letter, 
stating that possibly they had over estimated their ability to raise 
five hundred dollars; but the amount should not fall short of 
four hundred ; and should reach five, if possible. My reply was, 
that the difference between five hundred and four hundred, did 
not weigh the value of a straw, in my mind, in determining my 
course. For, if I were adapted to their wants, the Lord would 
sustain me in the discharge of my duties. 

This invitation I accepted upon this condition, namely, that I 
should first visit them ; and then, if, on becoming mutually ac- 
quainted, they should still desire the proposed connection, the 
matter might be definitely arranged This condition was rea- 
dily acceded to on their part. Things being thus arranged, I 
set out to visit them about the first of October, leaving my family 
behind. 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 45 

I met with a cordial reception, and all appeared glad to have me 
with them. I remained there about six weeks, preaching every 
Sunday, and occasionally through the week. I preached at Dan- 
by, Ithaca, and Spencer. The result was a unanimous invitation 
to become their preacher. On my part, feeling satisfied with the 
honest sincerity of the people, I accepted their invitation. About 
the middle of November, I left them to return for my family. 
My course of travel was by way of Buffalo, and Lake Erie, to 
Ohio. I arrived in Buffalo, about four o'clock in the morning, 
and put up at the largest hotel in the place. The room assigned 
me to take a morning nap, while waiting for the boat to start to 
Cleaveland, was one the farthest removed from the basement 
story. This gave me, for a short time, quite an elevated posi- 
tion in the world. When I left my bed in the morning, dressed 
myself, and prepared for leaving, I concluded to take a peep 
out of the window to see how things looked, as I had arrived 
there in the night. For the first time, I saw Lake Erie. The 
sight was not just as pleasant as I could have desired under 
the circumstances, as I expected that day to cross the lake to 
Cleaveland. The sky was filled with stormy clouds, and the lake 
threw up her angry billows. The scene in itself was truly grand ; 
but the thought of encountering such huge waves, was not agree- 
able. After breakfast, in company with many other travellers, 
I took passage on a steam boat for Cleaveland. But the lake 
was so rough, that the captain would not venture to leave port 
that day. The next morning, it was little or no better ; but, as 
another boat declared she would leave that day, and as it was 
getting so late in the season, in order to avoid losing his pas- 
sengers, our captain determined to go too, if the other boat ven- 
tured, rough as the lake was, assuring his passengers that his 
vessel was stronger than the one that offered him competi- 
tion. I know that almost any steam-boat captain would say 
the same of the boat he was commanding ; but, from the best 
information we could gather in the city, we had strong reason 
to believe that what he said was true. The consequence was, 
that we all stuck to his vessel. Sure enough, before noon that 
day, the other vessel made a move, and our captain, true to his 

6 



46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

word, started along. We found the lake rough, but got along 
through the day very well ; but, as night approached, the storm 
grew more furious. In the evening, the other vessel made the 
harbor of Ashtabula. Our captain at first tried to do the same, 
but failed ; declaring that there was not water enough on the bar 
to carry his vessel safely over. He had to tack about, and put 
out into the lake again. 

The storm had by this time become quite furious ; but, as the 
wind blew off shore, the captain did not apprehend much danger, 
since he could run his vessel along hugging the shore, as he 
termed it ; which was, keeping within three or four miles of the 
shore. The vessel was run in this way until about midnight, 
when, suddenly, the direction of the storm changed, now blowing 
almost directly in to shore ; and, with this change, its fury also 
increased. It became now most terrimc indeed. So far as I 
could tell, the passengers generally thought the vessel must be 
lost ; and I do not wonder they thought so, from the manner in 
which she labored under the working of the machinery, and the 
beating of the waves. When this sudden change took place, we 
were but a few miles from the harbor of Fairport, being in 
sight of the light house. But the captain, in order to save the 
vessel, if possible, directed his course almost straight out into the 
lake, so as to avoid drifting on the rocks near shore. For a 
time, the boat did not seem to move forward at all, on account of 
the head winds, although all the steam possible was applied. 
After struggling in this way until about four o'clock in the 
morning, he ventured to direct his course towards the harbor 
of Fairport, which we reached in safety ; although the captain 
said, that we came within an inch of being wrecked on the pier. 

The reader must bear with me, while I go back and relate 
some things that took place on the passage between Buffalo and 
Fairport. I was told that there were about fifty steerage pas- 
sengers, and most of them pretty lively. In the cabin, we had 
not so many. Through the day, nothing very unusual occurred. 
The movement of the stomachs gave indication that the plenty 
of good things on the captain's table, would not that day be 
much diminished. Unexpectedly to myself, I entirely escaped 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 4J 

sea sickness ; in which good fortune, I believe, I was alone among 
my fellow passengers. Late in the afternoon, I fell into con- 
versation with a gentleman, whom I found to be an open, free 
spoken man, who appeared to be a zealous member of the me- 
thodist church. He expressed much regret at the wickedness 
among the steerage passengers ; and took especial exception to 
their fiddling and dancing. I told him that, if they did nothing 
worse than engage in music and dancing, to pass away the time, 
I thought it was not so very bad. But he said they were also 
drinking and swearing. I replied that that was bad, and I re- 
gretted that people would indulge in such vices. In this parti- 
cular we agreed. The subject was here dropped for the time. 
When the storm became so furious as to cause a general fear 
that all on board would be lost, the scene in the steerage was 
changed — so my methodist friend, in another interview, informed 
me. Instead of the mirthfulness of the day, they were now en- 
gaged in what appeared to be devout prayer and supplication for 
mercy. I am not certain, but I believe the friend alluded to, 
was aiding them all he could. He appeared to rejoice greatly 
at the happy conversions, as he called them, that he witnessed 
among the passengers. I told him, in substance, that it was but 
the effect of fear, and that it did not enter into the spiritual 
quality of the men, and that he had better wait until we arrived 
in port, if Divine Providence should favor such event. Our 
arrival there would be apt to decide how far these supposed con- 
versions were real. The man appeared to regret that I had so 
little confidence in his new-made converts. Among the cabin 
passengers every thing remained very quiet. Of all that took 
births in the gentleman's cabin, I was the only one that was able 
to leave his birth with safety, on account of sea sickness. For 
the last four hours of the storm, I watched our condition, as well 
as I could ; and heard and answered, as far as possible, the many 
inquiries of my fellow passengers. I was asked very often, if 
I thought there was any prospect of reaching the harbor. I 
would have to answer that I hoped so, but could tell little or 
nothing about it ; that, if it were the will of Divine Providence, 
we should reach there ; if not, we ought to feel resigned to the 



48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

divine will. My being able to watch the storm, and at the same 
time remain calm, not manifesting any signs of fear, — for I could 
not really say that I thought we should be lost, — I believe, had a 
great effect in calming the fears of my fellow passengers. For 
they manifested no great excitement, although the impression 
had been made that we were in the most imminent danger. 

As before stated, we reached Fairport in the morning. And 
now for our steerage passengers. As soon as the vessel was 
safely in port, they went ashore, leaving their suddenly got re- 
ligion where they supposed they had found it, in the steerage of 
a Lake Erie steam boat. For they departed cursing and swearing, 
declaring that they would walk all the way by land, sooner than 
go again on the d — d lake. In leaving the boat, they reminded 
me of a flock of frightened sheep following their leader. And, 
when they reached the hotel, (for the hotels were all open for 
our reception,) they at once engaged in as much drinking and 
swearing, as I supposed they had done in the steerage the day 
before their supposed conversion. I did not get to see my reli- 
gious friend after this escape, to ask him what he thought of his 
new-made converts. 

This event gave a clear practical illustration of the falsity of 
the doctrine of instantaneous conversion. Swedenborg says, 
" That a belief in momentaneous salvation from immediate mercy 
is taken from the natural state of man. Secondly, that such a 
belief proceeds from ignorance of his spiritual state, which is 
totally different from his natural state." (D. P. 338) And all 
who are acquainted with the doctrines of the New Church under- 
stand clearly, why it is so. But here we will leave the events of 
the boat. 

From Fairport, I proceeded home in the stage, nothing un- 
usual occurring on the route. At home, I found my family sick ; 
This, together with the lateness of the season, rendered it entirely 
impracticable to move the family to Danby that fall. We had 
of course to remain until the opening of navigation, the following 
spring. We remained that winter at my mother's, and I taught 
the school in their district. 

About the first of May, 1840, we set out for Danby, and, in 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 49 

due time, safely reached our point of destination. Here we re- 
mained four years. By arrangement, I generally preached on 
Sunday mornings, and in the afternoons or evenings of the same 
day, either in the temple at Danby, or at Ithaca, Spencer and 
Willseysville ; occasionally, also, elsewhere. This arrangement 
was frequently interrupted by my having to preach in other 
places. 

As it will not be particularly interesting, or instructive, to 
narrate many particulars of our four years' sojourn at Danby, 
I shall pass them by, only noticing a very few of the most pro- 
minent. The only unusual thing that took place, during my stay 
in Danby, was the occurrence of a methodist protracted meeting, 
held in the new-church temple. They labored with their usual 
noise, every evening, for nearly two weeks ; but, as it appeared 
to be labor in vain, a single question, asked them one evening, 
seemed to be sufficient to close their meeting. The evening of 
the close, they remarked, in substance, that the present might 
be the last opportunity the audience would have of hearing chris- 
tian prayers offered up for them. At a proper time, I arose and 
asked them, if they meant, by that expression, to insinuate, that 
the prayers offered up in our regular sabbath worship, were not 
christian prayers. This question evidently produced considera- 
ble embarrassment and confusion, followed by a rather lame 
attempt to explain that they did not exactly mean that. Suffice 
to say, they, of their own account, discontinued their meetings. 

At Spencer, our meetings were at first well attended ; but, so 
soon as it was ascertained that they were to be continued regularly, 
the attendance fell off. For quite a length of time, we only 
numbered, in our meetings, about twenty-five persons ; occasion- 
ally reaching perhaps fifty. Our brethren were much discou- 
raged at this state of things, regretting that I should come and 
preach to so few. They were told not to feel so, as we met to 
worship the Lord, and not the people. " That the race is not to 
the swift, nor the battle to the strong." And that the "day of 
small things" should not be despised. Our meetings were con- 
tinued, and gradually gained such accessions, that they were at 
length as numerously attended as that of any denomination of 



50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

the old church, in the place, on ordinary occasions. We found 
that, after Spencer was made a regular place of preaching, there 
was a combination on the part of those opposed to us, to " starve 
us out; " but this they were unable to do, as they had not control 
of heavenly nourishment. At Willseysville, things did not go 
quite so smoothly ; but the following extract of a letter, written 
to the acting committee of the Central Convention, at the time, 
may speak for that place now : 

"In reference to Willseysville, I cannot give the precise information 
which I have in reference to Danby. The external surface there has not 
been permitted to remain entirely unruffled. As storms are succeeded by 
calms, it sometimes happens that long calms are followed by storms. 
Something of this has been the case in Willseysville. That my brief nar- 
rative may be the better understood, I will state the regulations among the 
citizens there for preaching in that place. Not long since, a meeting-house 
was erected, designated a baptist house, (close communion,) with the ex- 
press stipulation that it was to be open and free for all christian denomi- 
nations, when not occupied by the regular meetings of the Baptists. Being 
thus provided with a place of meeting, it was mutually arranged that the 
baptist elder should preach each alternate Sabbath twice, and that the in- 
tervening Sabbath should be occupied by the methodist minister and my- 
self, each preaching one sermon. This arrangement had been adhered to 
more than a year, and, to some considerable extent, the same persons had 
been attending the different kinds of preaching, when the storm above al- 
luded to commenced. About as many persons generally attended one as 
the other. But this state of things was not permitted to continue. Early 
in the spring, the Baptists took alarm, and set to work to reform things. 
The result of this the sequel will show. They commenced a protracted 
(alias distracted) meeting. The minister accused his own brethren se- 
verely. He said — that some of them had committed awful deeds, but did 
not state what those deeds were — that they were frozen into one solid ice- 
berg, (and your readers may like to know that all this happened in a very 
cold night,) — and that the devil had been among them for the last year, 
&c. This last was the first wordy shot directed at me. The hitherto ap- 
parently warm sky and smooth surface began now to be troubled, but not 
in me, nor yet in the true friends of the new church. The black clouds* 
were soon seen collecting for the pending storm, until some half dozen 
were mingled together in the general commotion. As storms are frequently 
attended with thunder, so this one was — but not heavenly thunder. Out 

* Baptist ministers, in their falsifications of the letter of the Word. (See Ap. Rev. 
21, 612, latter part of the nos.) 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 5$ 

of one of these prominent clouds (Elder ) proceeded a great rumbling- 
noise, a mighty gush of wind, without lightning or raining in a good sense. 
The storm raged long and loud. I shall not attempt to describe it. Suf- 
fice to say, much of it was sent forth upon the new church, and aimed di- 
rectly at me. Elder descended, if indeed descend he could, to low 

and scurrilous epithets: such as agent of the devil, devil's pedlar, &c. In- 
deed, I should regard many of his expressions as a desecration of the sa- 
cred desk. The result, however, is all that it is particularly necessary to 
give. A great majority of the people, and for miles round, were disgusted 
at the attack upon me and the new church. And very many who were, 
and perhaps will, remain opposed to the doctrines of the new church, were 
equally opposed to the conduct of the Baptists towards us. We have had, 
as is supposed illegally, the doors of the meeting-house closed against us. 
Against the Methodists also, but perhaps not intentionally in their case. 
And, when some of the baptist leaders were asked, if they were going to 
shut me out of the house, they replied, in substance, Yes, and banish him 
from Willseysville. But do not be alarmed, my brethren ; this latter de- 
sign on their part has not taken place. I continue, unless called from home, 
"to preach once in two weeks at Willseysville, though not in the meeting- 
house. We meet in a school-house. So do the Methodists. And, since 
this attack upon us, our meetings have been much better attended, while 
the meetings of the Baptists have greatly diminished. I trust I do not say 
it boastingly, but only to show the effects of such unprovoked, unjust and 
uncalled for attacks as this was, and I believe generally considered to be, 
that at least twice as many attend our meetings as attend the meetings of 
the Baptists. How long this may continue, or what good may finally re- 
sult from it, is known to the Lord alone; and with him I am content to 
leave it." 

Not long after our settlement in Tompkins County, New York, 
a new door was opened to me, by means of which I could have 
access to the public mind. In this county, teachers' institutes 
had their origin, under the very efficient county superintendant, 
J. S. Denman, Esq. For some cause or other, I received the 
first appointment as lecturer, on common school education, for 
the town in which we lived ; and, at the same time, was appointed 
a member of the board of instructors and lecturers to the insti- 
tute. The great object of the institute was to offer information 
to teachers, in regard to the best methods of teaching and go- 
verning their schools. Two sessions a year were held, continu- 
ing from two to three weeks each, in the fall and spring. The 
number usually in attendance, was from one hundred to two 



52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

hundred and fifty teachers, besides many visitors. And a more 
engaged, harmonious, and interested company of persons, I ne- 
ver saw assembled on any occasion. They all appeared anxious 
to secure the end for which they were called together. This 
fact was truly encouraging to the superintendant and the board 
of instructors. My position in the board, which I held, as long 
as I remained in the county, brought me into contact with very 
many persons, whom otherwise I should probably never have 
seen. The result was, that I was invited to different parts of 
the county, first to lecture on common school education, and 
then to preach. In this way, I knew of a number who became 
interested in the doctrines of the New Church ; but, whether they 
ever advanced, so as to enter within the gates of the Holy City, 
or not, I am unable to say. As to the general interest mani- 
fested in the New Church, the Rev. Dr. Beers remarks, in a 
letter to the Rev. R. De Charms, just after we left to return to ■ 
the West : " and there are more readers and inquirers now, than 
I have known for many years." 

Many interesting conversations took place while visiting dif- 
ferent parts of the country ; but I will here only relate the sub- 
stance of one. I was invited to a village not far from Ithaca, 
to give a lecture on education. The invitation was accepted, 
and the lecture delivered. This was followed by an invitation 
to preach in the same place ; which I did. In this village resi- 
ded a very intelligent and worthy gentleman, devotedly attached 
to the faith of universal salvation. He heard my lecture on ed- 
ucation with pleasure, but could not be prevailed on to come and 
hear the sermon, remarking, that he had not heard any other 
than a Universalist preach for fifteen years, and that he did not 
wish to hear any body preach that believed in future and end- 
less misery. A friend of his, inclined to the same faith, at whose 
house I was staying, invited me to accompany him to this gen- 
tleman's house, and to have some religious conversation with him. 
This I did. We were kindly received, and appeared to be made 
very welcome. The substance of our conversation will be but 
briefly narrated. I proposed to him, that we should not start 
out to disagree, but to see how far we could agree. This pro- 



THE EEV. DAVID POWELL. 53 

posal he readily accepted. I then remarked, that, as all reli- 
gion, and all spiritual matters, related to the Lord, in reference 
to Him, we should start together. To this he did not object. 
I then remarked, that when we agreed upon a point, we would 
stick a pin there, to indicate that it should not be deviated from, 
without our mutual consent. No objection was made. These 
preliminaries having been arranged, I then remarked to him, 
that I believed there was but One God, who was infinite divine 
love and divine wisdom, divinely full and perfect in all his attri- 
butes, unchangeable — the same yesterday, to day, and for ever. 
He said he believed so too. Our first pin was stuck on that 
point. I then asked him if he admitted that there was misery in 
God's universe now. He readily granted that there was, and 
so another pin was stuck. I then said to him, if it is not con- 
trary to the nature of this good divine being, in whom we believe, 
that misery should exist one moment, how can it be contrary 
to the nature of the same unchangeable divine being, that it 
should exist two moments or four moments; and, I was about 
carrying it up to an eternity of moments, because the same divine 
being remained unchanged in all his attributes, when he stopped 
me, by remarking, I see where you have got me ; I confess you 
have the advantage of the argument. We had much more plea- 
sant conversation, in which I endeavored to explain to him that 
evil, the indulgence of which is sin, and hence misery, and its 
perpetuity, depended upon spiritual laws different from what he 
had been acquainted with. It was explained to him that pu- 
nishment did not come from the Lord, but from the practice of 
evil itself, as an effect from its cause. He was told that when a 
man on earth, knowingly and habitually indulged in evils, until 
he confirmed himself in them, that such became his very nature, 
quality, and form. And that, when he passed into the other life, 
he retained precisely the same quality and remained in it for 
ever. Hence he is for ever in the delight of doing evil, and 
this is the ground of his eternal misery. We parted on very 
friendly terms; but I am not aware, that he ever gave up 
the faith of universal salvation. I believe his feelings, at least, 
were so far operated on by this interview, and inclined towards 

7 



54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

the New Church, that, the next time I preached in the village, 
he came to hear me. 

While residing at Danby, I was in the habit of visiting some 
excellent families of the New Church, near Little York, in 
Cortland County, and preaching for them frequently on week 
day evenings. About five miles from that place, lived a Uni- 
versalist, who was regarded as quite a champion in his faith. He 
said to my friend Cushing one day, that, if I would preach on 
the subject of hell, he would come and hear me. I readily con- 
sented, and he was true to his promise. In my discourse, I gave 
a general view of the future life, of both the good and bad, in as 
plain and familiar a manner as I possibly could. I endeavored 
to show that the seat of our happiness or misery, w T as within us, 
and not simply without us. And hence, as heaven is said to be 
within a good man, so hell may be said to be within a bad man. 
And as a good man, on entering the spiritual world, retains his 
heaven within, so does a bad man, on entering that world, retain 
his hell. At the close of the discourse, I invited all who wished 
to do so, to remain and ask me questions on the subject that had 
been considered. About a dozen remained. There were however 
but few questions asked. My universalist friend said, he came 
prepared to make battle with me ; but that the subject had been 
treated so differently from the way the so called orthodox 
preachers treated it, and so differently from any thing he had 
ever heard, that he had nothing to say. To use his own lan- 
guage, "the discourse had completely spiked his cannon." At 
my next visit there, I understood the man was very sick ; and, 
whether he recovered or not, I am unable to say. I never heard 
any thing more from him, on the subject of his faith. 

The use I intended, in relating these incidents, is, to show the 
power there is in the doctrines of the New Church. Any advan- 
tage a Newchurchman has, in contact with the doctrines of the 
old church, does not belong to the man, but to the doctrines them- 
selves; for they are truths from the Lord in his Word. And 
every true Newchurchman will give all the honor to the Lord, 
and claim none to himself. 

In the spring of 1844, I returned with my family to the A\ est, 



THE KEV. DAVID POWELL. 55 

and took up my residence again at Steubenville. I now made 
an engagement with the Missionary Society of the New Church 
at Cincinnati, which was to continue not less than two years, and 
longer, if it was found useful. I continued with them, with a 
slight alteration of the first engagement, for three years, at a 
salary of four hundred dollars per annum, paying all my travel- 
ling and other expenses out of that sum. But, as my services, 
as a Missionary, are well known to the Church, it is not neces- 
sary to dwell on them here. Suffice to say, that many times, 
week after week, in succession, I would preach every evening 
except Saturday, and then twice on Sunday; and oftentimes 
would have many miles to travel through the day to reach my 
appointments for the evening. 

I feel constrained here to add something more before I close 
my narrative. Meigs and Belmont counties were two of my 
principal fields of operation, as a missionary. In Belmont 
County, one fall, I travelled on horseback in all kinds of weather, 
and oftentimes had to run risks in fording streams, much swol- 
len with recent rains, in travelling from village to village, to 
deliver lectures and distribute tracts. In this way thousands 
of new-church tracts were distributed in various parts of that 
country. 

One incident took place, which I must relate, as it may be 
somewhat amusing to some of my readers, and useful to others. 
I had delivered a lecture in the village of Bridgeport, on the sub- 
ject of fallen angels, as the supposed origin of one great person- 
al devil, as the king, or ringleader of all others, the origin of 
evil, ? and the fall of man. My excellent friend, J. H. W., of 
St Clairsville, was present, and heard it, and was so much pleased 
with it, that he was desirous of having it delivered in some of 
the principal villages of the county ; which desire to a certain 
extent was complied with. And now for the particular incident 
alluded to. An appointment was made in the village of J., for 
the lecture to be delivered. The public school house was grant- 
ed for the purpose. The religious part of the community, as I 
understood, were generally Presbyterians and Seceders; but, 
as the announcement was a lecture, and not a sermon, and on 



56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

Saturday evening, and not on the Sabbath, the imputation of the 
sin of sabbath breaking was thereby avoided, by those who at- 
tended the lecture, but who thought it sinful to attend such a 
lecture on the Sabbath day. The novelty of the lecture, and its 
being delivered by what the world calls a Swedenborgian, was 
sufficient to attract a full house. The lecture was delivered, and 
listened to, apparently at least, with marked attention. After 
the meeting was closed, I discovered a number of persons in 
close, low conversation ; but heard nothing of what they said. I 
retired to the small village hotel, where I was staying, and took 
my seat in the sitting room, by the fire. Very soon afterwards, 
in came some four or five gentlemen, who, I found, had been at 
the lecture. I was soon informed by them, that the object of 
their visit was to ask me some questions, on the subject of the 
lecture. I also soon discovered that one of them, (Mr. David 
Hammond,) a substantial Seceder, was by common consent made 
spokesman. He commenced by making some rather complimen- 
tary remarks in reference to the lecture ; observing that there 
was one difficulty in the way in receiving what I had said in the 
lecture. I asked what that was. He said that if I could tell 
them how man could fall, without a great personal devil to tempt 
him, it would do much towards removing the difficulty in their 
way. To this I replied that I was no Yankee, although I was 
sometimes accused of being one; but, on this occasion, I believe 
I must adopt the mode of answering their questions by asking 
them some. To this they did not object. I then asked them : 
" Do you not believe that there is one great personal devil, as chief 
of the infernal crew ? " He replied they did. I next asked, " Do 
you not believe that he was an angel of the highest order, an 
immediate attendant upon the throne of the Almighty ; and 
that he fell ? " Mr. H. acknowledged they did believe it. I then 
said to them, "Now, if you will tell me, how a being so pure, and 
holy, and happy, so near the throne of the Almighty, the source 
of all joy and delight, could fall without a devil to tempt him, 
and cannot tell how poor feeble man in the flesh, could fall with- 
out a chief or leading tempting devil, I will endeavor to tell you." 
They sat in silent amazement a few moments, then rose, picked 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 57 

up their hats, and said, as it was getting late, they believed they 
must go. So they bid me good night, and left. 

Next morning, soon after breakfast, I was in my room, pre- 
paring to leave for my Sunday morning appointment, which was 
a few miles distant, when I overheared some one in conversation 
with the landlord. I soon ascertained that it was the physician 
of the place, a Presbyterian I had been introduced to the day 
before, and who had in fact taken some part in procuring a place 
for the lecture, and circulating a notice for the same. I learned 
that he had been prevented from calling on me the evening 
before, with the other gentlemen, in consequence of having a sick 
patient to visit. I heard him ask the landlord, "How did David 
Hammond and the others get along with our lecturer last night ? " 
The landlord somewhat amusingly replied, (making use of a 
Belmont phrase, entirely new to me, and applying to persons 
completely used up,) "I tell you what, Doctor, I never saw a 
set of men pile up their corn as quickly as they had to do last 
night:"- and so the matter ended. 

After having advanced thus far in his narrative, Mr. Powell 
found himself compelled by the increased severity of the disease, 
which afflicted him, to lay aside his manuscript, the latter part 
of which, had been dictated by him, whilst lying on his sick-bed, 
amidst great pain and suffering; and to request the editor to 
finish and prepare it for publication. This task, undertaken 
with great reluctance and diffidence, and delayed in its comple- 
tion, by fruitless efforts to procure more circumstantial and 
detailed accounts of the active missionary life of his much loved 
friend and brother, the editor now sees himself necessitated to 
fulfil in such way as best he can. Having in his possession only 
a few meager data referring to the concluding period of the life 
of this useful man, he can offer the reader but a meager account 
of him and his labours during that time. 

In the course of the year 1847, Mr. Powell accepted an invi- 
tation from the New Church society at Pittsburg, Pa, to become 
their pastor, and immediately upon coming among them, ad- 
dressed himself with his accustomed zeal and activity to the per- 



58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

forniance of the duties of his office. He established a Sunday 
school, in connection with the society, and took an active share 
in the instructions imparted to the children ; frequently ad- 
dressing them on subjects of present practical value and interest, 
as well as upon the lessons of the day ; he endeavoured to 
awaken a love for church music, especially among the younger 
members of the society, with whom he held meetings for the 
practice of singing, and for the purpose of familiarizing them with 
the chants, so generally used in the public worship of the church 
in this country. These uses, in addition to the labour necessary 
for the preparation of two discourses, for every Lord's day, and 
the faithful performance of his pastoral duties, as might perhaps 
be supposed, fully occupied his time, and gave ample employ- 
ment to his active and industrious spirit. With all this, however, 
his missionary habits, acquired by years of labour among the 
Gentiles, in the proclamation of the heavenly truths of the New 
Jerusalem, were not laid aside, but led him to seize eagerly upon 
every opportunity which offered, to present the doctrines of the 
church to inquiring and open minds ; and it is related of him, 
that he was frequently seen in earnest conversation, at the cor- 
ners of the streets, with persons, who had, a few moments before, 
been perfect strangers to him, but in whom he had been induced 
to believe there might be some degree of preparation for the re- 
ception of the truth. 

In all this time, too, his own study of the doctrines of the church, 
and of the Word, according to these doctrines, was most faithful 
and diligent ; and it was, in order that he might be enabled more 
fully to understand, and better to teach, the divine truths of the 
Word, for the salvatioa of souls, that he began also, to devote 
whatever leisure he could obtain, to the study of the Hebrew 
language under the instruction of a Jewish Rabbi, and joined a 
class, formed by several clergymen of the Old Church, and other 
gentlemen of literary tastes and pursuits, for the purpose of mu- 
tual aid and improvement in the acquisition of a knowledge of 
that language. Not satisfied with these efforts to obtain an un- 
derstanding of the original tongue in which the Divine Word 
was written for the use of men on earth, for the better perfor- 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 59 

mance of his duties as a teacher of divine truth in the New 
Church, he entertained serious thoughts of giving instruction in 
Hebrew to the children of his society. Although prevented by 
illness in his family, and other causes, from " beginning this good 
work," he appears to have been deeply impressed with the con- 
viction, that all the children of the New Church should be taught 
to read the Word in the original tongues, not only on account 
of the more full and complete heavenly consociative power of the 
Word, in the letter of those tongues, especially of the Hebrew, 
as a language which exists in the heavens, — but also for the pre- 
servation of the Word among men, in its literal integrity. That,, 
inasmuch as the Word, in the Hebrew letter, had been committed 
to the Jewish nation, by whom it had been preserved intact un- 
til this day, owing to their peculiar external genius and charac- 
ter, which led them to insist with a religious faithfulness, upon 
keeping inviolate the letter of their scriptures, even to the mi- 
nutest jot and tittle, as delivered to them by their fathers, and 
this nation was fast passing away, since the last judgment, and 
would soon cease to exist as such, a necessity had arisen, to make 
provision for a supply of means, whereby this their peculiar use, 
might continue to be performed in all coming time. As it ap- 
peared to him, this could only be done, by implanting the Word 
as it is in the original, in the memories of the children of the 
church, upon which, as upon so many tabulae rasae, it would not 
only be thus early, deeply, and indelibly impressed, but would 
also be so multiplied and extended, that there could be no dan- 
ger of its being lost, whilst, at the same time, it would be laying 
most deeply and firmly in the lowest forms of human sensual 
thought, the external foundation of divine truth, for the building 
up of the walls of the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending out 
of heaven, from God. And, there can be no doubt, that, in this, 
he advocated, and endeavored to ultimate, a most important and 
vital educational principle of the church ; a principle which can- 
not be too strongly urged upon the attention and consideration 
of those, who in sincerity and truth, "pray for the peace of Je- 
rusalem;" and which must, in future time, become a leading 
feature in all the instruction imparted by the church to its chil- 



(JO AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

dren and youth. If the Hebrew is a language which exists in 
the heavens, and which derived the forms of its letters, from the 
forms of which "consist the writings in the inmost heaven," and 
which are "according to the form of heaven," (H. & H. 260,) 
then certainly can there be no more full and powerful means, 
among those external correspondences and representatives, 
"which are in the ultimates of order, for consociating the minds 
of men on earth with the angels and good spirits in the heavens, 
than the making of these very letters, or of the Word in its ori- 
ginal literal form, which is "according to the form of heaven," 
the primary and fundamental thing of their instruction in child- 
hood and youth. For, it is clear, that if the form of heaven, as 
it is in the original letter of the divine Word, is thus impressed 
upon the soft and pliable substances of the sensual principle, in 
the infant beginnings of its development, whilst it will consociate 
man, in early life, most fully with angels, who particularly de- 
light to be with children when they read the Word, and will thus 
open him more entirely to the operation of the Lord's providence 
in storing up the remains of good and truth, for his future use 
in the work of regeneration; it will also, as a first state of 
thought, enter into all his succeeding states of thought, and of 
life from thought, and impart to them more or less of its own 
heavenly form and quality. In further support of this view of 
the use of a knowledge of the Hebrew language, it is to be ob- 
served, that there is this difference between the Word as read in 
its translations, and in the original, — in its effect of consociating 
man with heaven, — that, in the translation, divine truth is pre- 
sented to the mind, in the form of a language,, which exists only 
on earth, thus in the ultimate form which has been given to it 
by its passage from the original, through the mind of the trans- 
lator, and so is represented to the sight and thought of angels, 
in a form of literal or natural thought only, whilst, in the origi- 
nal, it is presented to the mind of man, in the form of a language, 
which exists in the heavens, and on the earth also, (being pre- 
served in the Word of the Sacred Scriptures,) and, what is more, 
the very letters of which language, have received their inflexions 
and circumflexions, by transfer from the most ancient people, 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. (31 

■who derived them from heaven ; and in consequence, it is repre- 
sented to the sight and thought of angels, not only in the form 
of a literal or natural thought, in which they behold what is spi- 
ritual or celestial, but also in the form of the very letters which 
compose the Word, and in which, with their various inflexions 
and circumflexions, they see indefinite arcana of wisdom, therein 
involved. (H. and H. 260, &c.) In the former case, the powerful 
influences for good, to be derived from the almost infinite ex- 
tension of the consociation of man with heaven, by means of the 
very inflexions and curvatures of the ultimate letters by which 
the Word was written, is lost; the consociation being confined 
to the natural idea of thought only, as contained in the Word 
which expresses it, and not also in the lowest forms of which 
that Word is composed. But, in the latter case, man is made a 
partaker of all the benefits which the Lord has provided in and 
by his Word, as that Word is in the heavens, and in the earths, 
in its celestial, spiritual, natural, sensual and corporeal forms ; 
in every jot and tittle of the last, as well as of the first of which, 
or rather, by every jot and tittle of the last of which it was ful- 
filled in the first, by the Lord himself, in the Humanity, which 
was the Word made flesh even to the lowest ultimates, and glo- 
rified into eternal union with the Divinity. In every letter of 
the Hebrew language, as it is in the Word, therefore, and in 
every inflexion and curvature of every letter, w T hich was ful- 
filled hj the Lord, or filled full of His Divine Life and light, 
there is a consociative power, capable of bringing heaven near to 
man, and thus of bringing man into spiritual contact with the 
Divine Humanity, by those ultimates in which he is eternally 
omnipresent, for the performance of his work of saving souls. 

Taking this view of the use of a study of the Hebrew lan- 
guage, especially to the children of the church, for whose wel- 
fare Mr. Powell's desires were ever strong, and strongly mani- 
fested, there is no doubt, that, if he had remained sufficiently 
long, in his then position, his energetic and use-loving character, 
would have enabled him to surmount all the difficulties, which 
interposed to prevent the immediate execution of his purpose. 
For the time, he was withheld from it, as he says in a letter to 

8 



G2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

a friend, and published in the Appendix to Journal XI of the 
Central Convention, "by protracted and painful illness, in his 
family, and professional duty, (having to prepare two sermons 
each week.)" Doubtless, also, the fact that a portion of his 
time, was occupied in missionary duty, in some parts of his old 
field, tended to keep his "serious thoughts " on this subject, from 
settling down into a fixed purpose, and ultimating themselves in 
the actual performance of that which he so clearly saw to be "a 
good work." And may we not here express the hope, that others 
of his brethren in the church, will have like "serious thoughts," 
on this important subject, and use their ability and influence, in 
bringing about a beginning of this "good work," for the eternal 
benefit of the rising and future generations of the church; and 
that thus the seed of a truth, which he was instrumental in sow- 
ing in the minds of some, during his life in this world, may spring 
up, to bear its fruit of heavenly use, now that he has been re- 
moved into the other world? 

Whilst upon the subject, we will add, that Mr. Powell never 
seems to have lost his interest in the study of the Hebrew tongue, 
continuing to devote to it, such time as he could obtain, in the 
intervals of active duty, and necessary preparation for instruc- 
tion in the doctrines of the church. And, in this particular, as 
in all others, he manifested his love of being useful to his fellow- 
men, imparting freely and gladly, to those with whom he con- 
versed, whatever light his own mind had obtained by hj£ study 
and investigations, in regard to the signification of difficult pas- 
sages of the Word. His life was devoted to his Divine Master's 
service, and whatever he had received, at his hands, he not only 
felt bound, but loved, to spend for the promotion of that service. 

When Mr. Powell first came to Pittsburg, the society met for 
worship in a hall, in Alleghany City. In the course of the fol- 
lowing year, however, finding the attendance to have considera- 
bly increased, as a visible result of his ministrations, and being 
strengthened by the addition to their numbers of several promi- 
nent and intelligent members, who had suffered the penalty of 
excommunication from the Presbyterian Church, with which fchey 
had been connected, on account of their acknowledgment of the 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. (J3 

doctrines of the New Church, and who resided in Pittsburg, it 
was resolved to move the place of worship to the latter city. 
The society accordingly rented the "Apollo Hall," and opened it 
for public worship, on Sunday, April 2d, 1848. With this change 
of place, there was also an effort made to introduce a change in 
the mode of supporting public worship. Heretofore, the minister 
of the society had been sustained by a salary, raised by subscrip- 
tion ; but, it was now determined to adopt Mr. Powell's proposi- 
tion, of meeting the necessary expenses of the society, by free- 
will offerings, made on the Lord's day, as acts of worship on the 
part of those who came up to bring to the Lord the homage of 
their praises and prayers, and to hear and receive instruction 
from the Word and the doctrines of the church. This change 
was not introduced without considerable opposition, on the part 
of some, who doubted the feasibility of this mode of sustaining 
worship ; and it was probably owing to their not being able to 
accord rationally and freely with the majority of the society, in 
this movement, so as to act harmoniously with it, that the plan 
had to be abandoned again, after a trial of six months. This 
result was greatly regretted by Mr. Powell, who not only at that 
time was fully convinced of the feasibility of the plan, but who 
also, then as well as afterwards, saw clearly that wherever faith- 
fully and conscientiously carried out, it would prove of great 
spiritual benefit to the worshippers themselves, and tend to bring 
about a far more orderly state of things, in the management of 
the external affairs of the society. As Mr. Powell has himself 
alluded to this subject, in the preceding pages, we will leave it 
with the remark, that it is one which is eminently worthy of the 
most serious consideration of all those who love the Lord's church, 
and would see it prosper in the arrangement of all the things of 
its external order, from and according to the laws of internal 
order, as given by the Lord himself for its establishment on 
earth. 

At the time when this matter was under discussion in the 
Pittsburg Society, Mr. Powell received an invitation from the 
Society at Chillicothe, Ohio, which had just erected a temple, 
the funds for which he had been greatly instrumental in collect- 



£4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

ing, to become its pastor. In consequence of the adoption of 
his proposition in reference to the mode of supporting worship, 
he felt bound to remain where he was, and to decline the invi- 
tation from Chillicothe. He preached regularly, three Sundays 
in every month, (the fourth being occupied in missionary labour 
elsewhere,) and with such acceptance that the number of those in 
attendance at worship sometimes reached as high as two hundred. 

Till the close of the year 1848, whilst Mr. Powell was thus 
labouring faithfully in the duties of his calling, he was living se- 
parated from his family, who resided in Steubenville, Ohio, his 
native place. The inadequacy of the provision made for his 
support, by the society, rendered this course necessary ; and how- 
ever trying, to one who was so warmly attached to his family, 
and so deeply anxious for their spiritual and natural welfare, it 
was submitted to with that patience and resignation to the divine 
will, which so strongly characterized his whole life. What added 
to the difficulty of this trial, was the increasing ill health of his 
wife and two of his daughters, in whom the symptoms of pulmo- 
nary disease became every day more manifestly developed, and 
who needed all the attention of a husband and father's affection- 
ate and wise care. About the time indicated, however, the society 
at Pittsburg, in considering the question of reengaging Mr. Pow- 
ell for another year, saw the propriety and necessity of provid- 
ing such support for him, that he would be enabled to move his 
family to that city, and thus settle down among them, as one of 
their number, and having the additional power for good, to be 
derived from his home and domestic use, being in the same place, 
with his official duties. His salary was increased, and his family 
removed to Pittsburg. 

This was in the beginning of the year 1849, a year marked 
in the history of this excellent and useful man, by severe family 
afflictions, and by trials of a peculiar nature, resulting from his 
connection with the society, to which he was ministering. In 
the month of February, his daughter, the third in age of his 
children, sunk under the disease from which she had been suffer- 
ing, and was removed to the spiritual world. A few months 
after, she was followed by his wife, the beloved partner, who had 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. (55 

shared with him his many trials and sorrows in the past, and his 
hopes for the future, but who had been prepared by long illness, 
to look for the change, which would remove her from an earthly, 
to a heavenly sphere of usefulness. 

As minister of the society, he made the painful experience, of 
seeing two of its leading and most intelligent members, fall into 
oross and dangerous heresies, without being able to aid them in 
recovering a true and safe position ; although he made every ef- 
fort suggested by his knowledge of the doctrines of the church, 
and by a wisdom, gained by long intercourse with his fellow men, 
and much reflection upon the ways in which man is to be led by 
truth to good, for the salvation of his soul. That he was deeply 
grieved, and sorely tried, by this sad occurrence, and the appa- 
rent loss of the promise of much good for the new church in Pitts- 
burg, is evident from his letters, written about that time, which 
all breathe the spirit of a kindly and brotherly sorrow for those, 
who, in their errors, had gone astray, and left a painful vacancy 
in prominent places of the little society, which was gathering 
around him. 

No doubt, this trial, so permitted to come upon him and the so- 
ciety, was of spiritual benefit to both, and served to confirm and 
strengthen in them a more rational faith in the heavenly doctrines 
of the church, and to awaken a greater activity of spiritual life, 
in the shunning of evils as sins against God, and the doing of 
good according to the truth. 

In August of the following year, 1850, Mr. Powell, entered 
into a second marriage, with Mrs. E. Stein, a widowed daughter 
of Mr. David Espy, of Warren County, Ohio, an old and well 
known receiver of the doctrines of the new church. Not long 
after, he resigned his pastoral charge of the society at Pittsburg, 
on account of their inability to afford him an adequate support 
for his family, and removed to the residence of his father-in-law, 
at the Twenty Mile Stand, in Warren County, Ohio. From 
this, as his home, he again entered the missionary field, in his 
native state, paying visits to St. Clairsville, Wheeling, Steuben- 
ville, Chillicothe, Meigs County, &c, and being also actively en- 
gaged in the affairs of the Urbana University, which commenced 



66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

its existence about this time, and aiding in the work of editing 
the New Jerusalem Messenger, a semi-monthly periodical, pub- 
lished at Cincinnati. 

In 1853, Mr. Powell accepted an invitation to become the 
pastor of the New Church Society, in Upper Darby, Delaware 
County, Pa., whither he removed with his family, in the month 
of September of that year. 

As he had brought his family to Pittsburgh, with the hope of 
their being benefited by the advice and attendance of skilful me- 
dical practitioners of the Homoeopathic School, residing in that 
city, so did he come to Darby, with a similar hope in regard to 
benefit which he expected to receive from a similar source 
in his own case, already grown serious, in consequence of the 
progress of that painful disease, which finally terminated his 
earthly existence. In this case, as in the former, his hopes were 
not destined to be realized, although he doubtless experienced 
great alleviation of his sufferings, from the remedies prescribed. 
His disease, pronounced by competent medical authority to have 
been a corroding ulcer, commenced in the summer of 1851, whilst 
residing at his father-in-law's, in Warren County, Ohio. In ap- 
parently strong health, at that time, full of life, vigour and 
energy, he entered the hay field one day, where the mowers were 
busily at work, and for the sake of exercise, took a rake, and 
worked until he had blistered his right hand, made tender by 
long disuse from manual labour. The blister soon took the form 
of a catarrh, which, after having been twice lanced to the bone, 
healed up. Immediately upon its healing, however, there ap- 
peared a small spot upon the back of his hand, which increased 
very slowly during the first twelve months after its appearance. 
As time advanced, the progress of the sore became more rapid, 
and as it began to wear a dangerous aspect, Mr. Powell applied 
what was supposed to be more vigorous medical treatment, but 
without any favorable results. About the time of his removal 
to Darby, the sore had assumed so decided and dangerous a cha- 
racter, that his medical advisers expressed great doubts as to the 
possibility of a cure being effected, especially in view of the fact, 
that he had inherited a scrofulous tendency, in his system, from 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. £7 

his mother, who had died of a cancer in her forehead, which ten- 
dency had manifested itself in the form of a tetter, at an earlier 
period of his life. 

In the mean time, his severe bodily affliction, did not prevent 
a most earnest, faithful and zealous attention to his official du- 
ties. The society had been without a minister for some years, 
and therefore needed his pastoral care ; and this it received to 
the best of his ability. He preached and administered the sacra- 
ments regularly, opened a Sunday school, for the instruction of 
the adults, as well as the children of the society, and lectured 
abroad, wherever an opportunity offered. His preaching and 
lecturing met with great acceptance, and gave evidence of their 
practical value and power, in the manifest results of a warmer 
and more active church life, than had previously existed, and in 
the numerical increase of the society, and of the attendance at 
public worship. But more, perhaps, than by these, was effected 
by his pastoral intercourse with his people, and by the beautiful 
and truly christian sphere of his life and conversation, which was 
inmostly felt and freely acknowledged by all, whether within or 
without the church, who were brought within the reach of its in- 
fluence. Few were more ready and apt, in familiar and plain 
explanation of the doctrines of the church, and of their applica- 
tion to life, and in meeting the objections, or difficulties, which 
arose in the minds of inquirers and seekers after the truth. In 
season, and out of season, he was ever prepared to do the work, 
to which he felt and believed himself called by his Divine Mas- 
ter, for the salvation of souls, and the extension and establish- 
ment of his heavenly kingdom on earth. And we doubt not, 
that there are many now within the bounds of the church, who 
will ever hold sacred the memory of this good man, as a blessed 
instrument in the hands of divine providence, of leading them to 
that good, by his faithful ministrations, in which alone they can 
find the source and ground of happiness here, and the hope of 
eternal felicity hereafter. 

Finding that all the efforts of the best medical advisers of this 
city, had failed to arrest the progress of the sore, which had 
eaten its way through the entire back of his hand, and was 



£8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

threatening to attack the main arteries, he determined, after ma- 
ture deliberation and much consultation, with physicians of both 
the old and new schools, to proceed to New York, for the pur- 
pose of putting himself under the care of a celebrated cancer 
doctor of that city, and, in case he should also fail in effecting a 
cure, of having his hand amputated. As was anticipated by 
those who best understood the nature of the disease, the doctor's 
efforts proved a failure, and amputation had to take place. The 
severe pain of this operation, together with all the great suffer- 
ings preceding and succeeding it, were borne by Mr. Powell, 
with that remarkable patience, submission and cheerfulness, 
which so strongly marked his whole character, and which afford- 
ed the best evidence of the internal presence of a divine power, 
upholding and sustaining him, and elevating him above the evils 
of the body. Not only the kind friends who so faithfully nursed, 
and so generously entertained and encouraged him, during his 
prolonged stay in New York, bear the testimony of their obser- 
vation and experience, to this his elevation and superiority above 
the physical sufferings of the body, but all those who were pre- 
viously strangers to him, but with whom he was necessarily brought 
into contact, could not repress their wonder, that a man should 
suffer so greatly, and yet be so free from all murmurings and im- 
patience, so cheerful, collected, and even gay of spirit, under the 
most trying circumstances. What but the presence and power 
of divine truth, in that good of life, which is its divine operation 
with man, could have produced such a result ! He, who, when 
received into the heart and life, can and does sustain in the dark 
and dreadful hour of spiritual trial, temptation and suffering, can 
and will also sustain, and give peace and patience, in whatever 
physical trial and suffering may come upon man, in his life on 
earth. Man may not be saved from falling into temptations, for 
these are necessary for his regeneration ; nor from bodily ills and 
pains, for these too are necessary for his eternal good; but he 
may be saved from sinking under temptations, and from being 
overmastered by physical pain and suffering. Intern ally, in bis 
spirit, and in his mind, he may rise superior to them both, being 
upheld and upborne by an almighty hand, which is "not short- 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 69 

ened that it cannot save," provided the hand of man be linked 
closely in it, and he follow the divine drawings, in the reception 
of that redeeming and saving truth which leads to eternal good. 
And, if we behold a man, thus upheld and upborne in the trials 
of his life, if we see him, in every situation, and under all cir- 
cumstances, labouring manfully for the good of souls, and, what 
is no less, bearing patiently, and submissively, and cheerfully, 
every dispensation of an all-wise providence, may we not be per- 
mitted to utter the divine Word: a The steps of a good man are 
ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his way. Though he 
fall, he shall not be utterly cast down : for the Lord upholdeth 
him with his hand. Mark the perfect man, and behold the up- 
right: for the end of that man is peace." (Ps. xxxvii, 23, 24, 37.) 
Checked for a time by the amputation of his hand, the disease, 
which evidently pervaded his whole system, and but found its ul- 
timate, terminating point, in the sore which had robbed him of 
one of his extremities, abated its violence, and enabled Mr. Pow- 
ell to recover, in a small degree, his former health and vigour. 
With the return of his strength, he felt that duty called him to 
his post ; but knowing, at the same time, that he held his natu- 
ral life upon a very precarious tenure, and remembering that it 
becomes every man to set his external house in order, before 
leaving it for ever, he resolved first to pay a visit to the. West, 
for the purpose of arranging certain private affairs, and seeing 
his friends, and then to resume his duties again at Darby. His 
journey was accomplished with comparative ease and comfort, 
but not without such indications of a renewed breaking out of 
the sore, as induced him to hasten his return home. Here he 
was permitted to remain but a very short time ; and, anticipating 
the necessity of a second amputation of the arm, he again pro- 
ceeded to New York, in the summer of 1854. His fears were 
soon realized. The rupture of a main artery, from the fatal ef- 
fects of which, he was only saved by his own coolness and pre- 
sence of mind, in directing his attendants how to proceed in 
stopping the profuse flow of blood, (no physician being at hand,) 
led him to submit to a second operation, by which his arm was 
removed near the shoulder. Great loss of blood and severe suf- 

9 



70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

fering now reduced his strength so much, that his recovery was 
both doubtful and very slow. 

Not long after his return to his home at Darby, the disease 
broke out again, under his arm ; and, although some hopes were 
entertained by his friends, that its progress might be stayed, by 
the remedies made use of, it soon became apparent, that these 
could do no more than afford a temporary alleviation to his suffer- 
ings. The ulcer continued to eat its way slowly, but surely, to- 
wards the vitals of his system, causing at first an interruption in 
the discharge of those duties which he so loved to perform, and 
finally prostrating him altogether upon that bed of suffering, 
from which he did not again arise. Although prevented from 
giving his personal attention to his official charge, he did not the 
less faithfully watch over and care for it. He provided the 
sermons, which were read by the leader of the society, in the 
worship, on the Lord's day, cared for the regular administra- 
tion of the holy ordinances of the church, and sought, by such 
counsel and instruction as he was enabled to give, in conversa- 
tion with his people, to strengthen and confirm in them a love of 
good and truth, for the salvation of their souls. Indeed, during 
this last period of his sufferings, when they were most intense, 
the true character of this good man, came out into clearest and 
fullest light. His beautiful and childlike confidence in, and sub- 
mission to, the divine providence of the Lord, his living faith in 
it, as a providence of infinite mercy and goodness, which, in all 
its dispensations of appointment and permission, looks ever, and 
only, to the eternal good of human souls ; his patient cheerful- 
ness in the midst of excruciating physical pain ; and withal his 
constant, and evidently ruling desire to teach truth, so that his 
hearers might be led to good, manifested the character of a true 
servant of the Lord, and won him the affectionate regard and 
warmest sympathies of many, who had not previously known 
him. To his friends and family, he afforded, in these times of 
his and their trial, an example of christian temper, and spiritual 
worth, which may prove of inestimable value to them, and of 
which their appreciation will increase, according to the degree of 
their progress in spiritual life. And, if they will look upon his 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 71 

life, especially the latter portion of it, in the light shed upon and 
around it, by the heavenly doctrines, which were its light from 
the Lord, they will cease to wonder in sorrow, that so good a 
man should have suffered so much ; but will rather be amazed, 
with inmost joy, at the infinite mercy of the Lord, that he should 
have permitted so much suffering, in order that he might provide 
the developement of so much goodness. 

We will not dwell upon the painful history of the sure and 
steady progress of Mr. Powell's disease, which no medical treat- 
ment seemed able to arrest any more, even for a short time ; but 
hasten to give some account of the close of his natural life. 
This had long been foreseen and provided for by him. Though, 
from a principle of duty, and for the sake of his family, he had 
neglected no means to effect a cure of his sore, had sought the 
best medical advice, and submitted to two severe operations, he 
had not been at all sanguine as to any permanently favourable 
results flowing from them. He knew that the Lord had a regard 
to eternal good, in that which he provided and permitted, and as 
he desired to be in the life of the divine prayer, "not my will, 
but thine, be done," so he desired to be prepared and willingly 
ready, for either event; for either a continuance of his life of 
use here, or a removal to such other sphere of use, as the Lord 
might provide for him in his heavenly kingdom. He thus de- 
sired and thought, himself; and thus also did he instruct his 
family, and seek to prepare them for the coming event of their 
natural separation. When, therefore, on the night of the fourth 
of July, the ulcer caused a rupture of a larger artery, and a con- 
sequent profuse flow of blood, he knew that the time of his 
change was nigh, and he looked upon it calmly, and with joyful 
resignation to the divine will. So fully aware of this was he, 
that he would not permit his faithful and beloved wife, to dress 
his wound, nor suffer himself to be disturbed, by any thoughts 
or attentions given to the body, but, sending for his family, and 
in the solemn consciousness of the nearness of his removal to 
another world, he addressed to them his last earthly words of 
counsel, took his final leave of them, and, with a husband and 
father's blessing upon a warmly loved wife and children, he com- 



72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

posed his spirit to that interna] quiet and rest, in which he de- 
sired to await the coming of the last moments of his earthly life, 
and the beginning of the first state of his eternal existence. 
And thus his spirit met the change, and passed away from the 
bondage of its earthly tabernacle, in which decay and death had 
long been doing their work, to enter into that new tabernacle, 
"an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Thus 
calmly, quietly and peacefully, did this good man end his natural 
career of use, and enter upon that eternal and heavenly course, 
which the Lord had provided for him, in which he, "being deli- 
vered out of the hand of his enemies, might serve him without 
fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of 
his life." How well and beautifully is the end of such a man's 
natural life — is the end of this man's natural life — displayed in 
that hymn, which was ever a favourite with him, when contem- 
plating the death of the regenerate Christian : 

Blest is the man who dies in peace, 

And gently yields his soul to rest; 
Who gains from earth the kind release, 

Leaning upon his Saviour's breast. 

So fades a summer cloud away ; 

So sinks the gale, when storms are o'er; 
So gently shuts the eye of day ; 

So dies a wave along the shore. 

A holy quiet reigns around, 

A calm no earthly care destroys : 
Nought can disturb that peace profound, 

Which this unfetter'd soul enjoys. 

Farewell, conflicting hopes and fears, 
Where light and shade alternate dwell! 

A bright, unchanging morn appears: 
Farewell, inconstant world, farewell ! 

The funeral took place on the Sunday succeeding his death. 
It was attended by a large concourse of members of the New 
Church, and of others, from the neighborhood of Darby, as well 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 73 

as from the city. The funeral discourse was preached by the 
Rev. R. De Charms, the old and intimate friend of Mr. Powell ; 
and the body was entombed in the burial ground of the Darby 
Society, adjoining the temple, in which the services were con- 
ducted. 

And now, what shall we say of the life and character of this 
truly good and useful man, which has not already been better 
said, by the account of that life, as given by himself? How 
characterize and pourtray him, better than he has characterized 
and pourtrayed himself? That he was good and useful — of that 
do his works testify. By his fruits, he is known. As a labourer 
in the missionary field of the New Church, Mr. Powell was faith- 
ful, zealous, energetic and untiring ; clear in the rational pre- 
sentation of the heavenly doctrines ; prompt and ready in meet- 
ing objections, and overcoming difficulties, raised by opponents, 
or started by honest inquirers ; strong and most decided in his 
refutation of old-church falsities, and in his teaching of the doc- 
trines of the New Jerusalem, as divine truths newly revealed for 
the use of the New Church. As in his mind there was no con- 
tinuity of the old into the new system of theological truth, so 
was there no commingling of the old with the new, in his instruc- 
tions, no compromising of truth with falsity, no paving of the 
way, and making of the path smooth, for the incoming of the 
harlot forms of a spurious charity, to disturb and rend the church 
by their perversions and profanations; no mixing up of the 
" pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of 
the throne of God and the Lamb," with the foul and muddy 
stream of a false faith, from an infernal principle. They, to 
whom his living voice first conveyed a knowledge of the doctrines 
of the New Jerusalem, heard no " uncertain sound," in their 
proclamation ; they, before whose rational thought, he traced the 
outlines of the holy city, saw no doubtful wavering of his hand, 
no undecided strokes, to raise a doubt, or awaken a suspicion, of 
his own earnest, and honest, and full belief, in the heavenly 
theme of his speech. Where he laboured, it was in earnest 
truthfulness ; where he laid down a stone, it was a stone from 
the wall of the holy city, and not from the valley, or the ditch, 



74 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

or the ruins of desolated Babylon. For, in him, it was a cardi- 
nal principle of his official life, " to teach men the way to hea- 
ven, according to the doctrine of the church, which is derived 
from the Word of God; and to lead them to live according to 
that doctrine; " (H. D. 315;) that so he might be a "good shep- 
herd," to those to whom he was sent. And, therefore, did he 
not first teach doctrine, and then inquire whether it was " de- 
rived from the Word of God," — much less, did he teach doctrine, 
without such inquiry, — but he sought first to know the doctrine, 
as drawn from the letter of the Divine Word, and confirmed by 
it, and then, after having rationally seen, and been convinced of 
its divine nature and origin, did he go forth, in this, the Lord's 
strength, and not in his own, to proclaim the Lord's truth, and 
not his own, as the Lord's messenger, and not his own. In this 
spirit of true humility, and earnest looking up to his Divine Mas- 
ter, for light, and aid, and power, to do the work to which he 
had called him, did he perform his duty as missionary, and as 
pastor. Hence, too, had he not only his clear perceptions of the 
interior truths of the church, but also, his rational convictions 
concerning the things of external order, as relating to the church's 
government and worship, and his nobly firm, devoted and unfal- 
tering maintenance of them, in the face of assaults, which would 
have severely tried the souls of men, who, by some, might have 
been accounted much stronger than Mr. Powell. It has been 
said of him, that he was a very good, but a very weak man, in 
reference to his action in the church. When the true history of 
the church in the West, shall be written, the historian will have 
the grateful task, of triumphantly vindicating the character of 
this good man, from that unjust and unworthy stigma. This 
we do know. It is not the place here, to enter upon a defence 
of him, from this reproach ; we merely put in our plea of denial, 
in rejoinder, and rely upon the faithful witness of those who have 
known him, and upon the true judgment of history, to establish 
it. Mr. Powell loved the things of divine order, from the first 
to the last of his life ; and, as we know, there were many thoughts 
in his mind, and many desires in his heart, in the last of his 
days here, for the peace of Jerusalem, to be established in her 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 75 

true and righteous external fulfilment of the internal and hea- 
venly verities of her faith. 

In regard to the character of Mr. Powell's preaching, those 
who heard him frequently, could not fail to notice his peculiar 
propensity, to choose strange texts, and explain difficult passages 
of the Word; as well as his happy mode of removing the diffi- 
culties which seemed, at first, to encompass his subject, and of 
rendering familiar the strangeness, which startled the mind, and 
excited the curiosity. This was, no doubt, in part, a result of 
his long-continued missionary labours, during the course of 
which he was so often met by his adversaries of the old church, 
with difficult passages from the Word, brought forward in order 
to confound him, and in order to meet whom, he found it neces- 
sary to prepare himself; and, in part, it was also owing to the 
strongly analytical quality of his mind, which, in science, mani- 
fested itself in his love for the study of arithmetic, and, in lan- 
guages, in his diligent and interested search after the radical de- 
rivations of words in the Hebrew and other languages. This 
very quality, and its cultivation, as is evident, were the means 
of his attaining a good knowledge, not only of the particulars of 
doctrine, but also, of those correspondences, according to which 
the Word is written, thus of the Word ; and thereby of prepar- 
ing him well for that field of usefulness, in which he so long and 
so successfully laboured. 

The selection of sermons, which the reader will find appended 
to this account of Mr. Powell, will afford a fair idea of his mode 
of writing his discourses, but not of his mode of delivering them. 
They were never delivered altogether as they were written ; as 
he was in the habit of extemporizing considerably, adding fami- 
liar illustrations, and making practical applications to existing 
states and conditions, as circumstances seemed to require. From 
this, his pulpit addresses derived a life and vigour, which, added 
to the clear expositions of the doctrines of the church, and of the 
Word according to doctrine, always to be found in them, made 
them peculiarly valuable and useful to all earnest seekers after 
the truth. Though defective in point of style, they were un- 
doubtedly well adapted to the states of most of his hearers, who 



76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

looked more to the matter, than to the manner of his teaching, 
and may thus be supposed to have been more useful, than more 
polished productions would have been. Whatever literary defi- 
ciency exists in them, may readily be accounted for, on the 
ground of the deficiencies of his early education, and the want 
of leisure, in later life, for a cultivation of those branches of 
knowledge, which are necessary aids in forming a truly good and 
elegant style of writing. 

As we have had occasion to remark, however, Mr. Powell's 
force and usefulness lay more in his pastoral and private inter- 
course with men, than in his pulpit ministrations. He was pos- 
sessed of eminently social qualities of heart and mind. Kind 
and true-hearted, from a sincere love for the good of his neigh- 
bour ; he was just, from a love of truth and right ; lenient, from a 
knowledge of human infirmity and imperfection ; hopeful, from a 
trust in the infinite mercy of the Lord ; patient and forgiving, 
from a charity "which suffereth long, and is kind;" and yet, 
withal, of uncommonly sound spiritual and natural judgment, so 
as to have a clear insight into the workings of human minds, and 
the effects and consequences of human actions. Added to this, 
he was of a cheerful and lively temper ; pleasant and entertain- 
ing in conversation ; and possessed the rare and most useful fa- 
culty of being able to adapt himself entirely to the states of 
those into whose society he was thrown, without losing his iden- 
tity, detracting from his character as a Christian and as a minis- 
ter of the Lord's church, or without neglecting any opportunity 
which might offer, to speak a word of seasonable admonition, or 
implant a seed of heavenly truth, for eternal good. With these 
qualities, it may readily be supposed, that Mr. Powell was a man, 
whom many loved well, and respected highly. And especially 
was he a favourite with the young, who were attracted by the 
sphere of his sun-shiny and loving disposition, and upon the 
minds of many of whom, he was the instrument of setting the 
indelible mark of those heavenly truths, which he so delighted, 
and was so well qualified, to impart to them. They ever received 
him with joy, and sorrowed to see him depart; they questioned 
him freely, and listened to him eagerly, for his affection went out 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 7f 

with and in his word, and they were drawn by it to endeavour 
to understand and remember what he said. No doubt, it was 
this, which rendered him so popular and useful a teacher, in his 
earlier days, and caused his services and labours to be so highly 
appreciated by the parents of the children, who were committed 
to his care ; and also enabled him to govern the various schools 
which he had under his charge, with so little difficulty, and with- 
out the exercise of severity. 

What Mr. Powell was in public, or official, and in social life, 
he was, if possible, still more in the domestic circle. A good, 
loving and wise husband, father and brother, as they who have 
held these relations to him, and those who have seen and known 
him in the life of these relations, can most surely testify. We 
cannot do better, in this connection, and as affording the best 
view of the character of this good man, than to give some ex- 
tracts from letters to his family, written between the years 1851 
and 1853, which have been kindly furnished us, and which so 
truly and freely breathe his spirit of tender solicitude for them, 
as well as his most implicit and beautiful reliance upon the di- 
vine providence of the Lord, and his inmost hope that they and 
all men might suffer themselves to be guided by it into the way 
of eternal life, through a reception of those heavenly doctrines, 
which are to bring salvation to the world. Under date of March 
14, '51, he says : 

"O how earnestly did I desire, and do I now desire, that we may all be 
able so to have our trust in the Lord, that the blessed and healthful influ- 
ences of his love might encompass us all around, and keep us in the gentle 

stream of his providence I walked into town through 

the woods ; and what delightful meditations it afforded. Many kinds of 
birds flying about and chirping their innocent songs ; the squirrel playfully 
bounding from tree to tree; and the little fish sporting joyfully in the rip- 
pling brook. How innocent ! While man alone, the noblest work of cre- 
ation, has violated the laws of order, by giving way to the feelings of self- 
ishness. But O ! how the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem are 
pressing to be received, that men may return to the laws of heavenly or- 
der, subdue their selfish and worldly feelings, and again enjoy the blessings 
of mutual love." 



10 



78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 

May 30, '51 : 

"Often, yea, very often, did I think of all at home; and as often did I 
think, if only our dear good old mother had been well, and all the rest in 

usual health, that our truly kind, good and affectionate could 

have been with us, as was previously expected and arranged, how much 
the pleasures of the journey would have been increased. But, as it was, 
and is, it may be best for all our spiritual states. And the fervent prayer 

of my heart is, that we may so apply it. I certainly did desire to be 

with us; not for my selfish gratification, in the pleasure of her truly agree- 
able society ; but for her happiness and delight. I desire to subdue more 
and more my own selfishness, and pray the Lord to aid me to do so, that I 
may live more and more for the good and happiness of others. O may we 
all come into that blessed state of regeneration ! that we can say from our 
hearts, 'The Lord's will be done !' My dear , neglect not, as you re- 
tire to bed, to kneel down and offer up the Lord's prayer, and feel as far as 
possible as though I was at your side in the same act of devotion. I will 
try to do the same. And have our dear daughters to offer up that prayer 
on going to bed. 

"Please say to our beloved father, that I felt bad and much to regret, 
that, on getting into the cars, I did not get to take my leave of him by an 
affectionate shake of the hand. But, when I put our baggage into the cars, 
the baggage master was hurrying me to jump in and get my checks. This 
summons of his, I had to obey. And it is well known that rail-road cars 
do not stop for ceremonies, even between the nearest and warmest friends. 
I know father's great kindness to us merits every thing else than apparent 
indifference; but my abrupt departure was unavoidable, and nothing else. 
If it can be the Lord's will, I sincerely hope, when this letter reaches you, 
that the health of our dear mother may be improved, and the rest all well, 
and that she may remain comfortable with us, to do us spiritual good. 

"As to our dear daughters, what need I say. They know that they have 
a father's love, though bodily absent from them. And I hope they will be 
good, kind and obedient girls. And, what is more, I hope, when the Sab- 
bath comes round, they will spend the day in a sabbath-school at home, in 
a new-church spirit, in learning new-church truths to live through the 
week. In doing this, they will be brought to remember that they have a 
Heavenly Father, who, although apparently absent from them, is still ever 
nigh to bless, keep and protect them. This Divine Father, they are taught 
to pray to, and call ' Our Father," &c. O, my dear, may He not only be 
truly our children's Heavenly Father, but may he be ours too, and all of 
us his spiritual children ! My heart fills full in me, and tears force them- 
selves to my eyes, when I think on these things, and how much is involved 
in the blessed address, 'Our Father,' &c, and what is required of us, that 
we may sustain that pure, holy and spiritual relation. In view of such 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 79 

state, I am ready to exclaim, 'How weak I am!' May we strive together 
to perform our duty and live for heavenly life, to make each other, and those 
with whom we are connected, happy ! Yes, that desirable word — by add- 
ing spiritual — spiritual happy ! " 

June 10, '51 : 

"The only feeling- to mar that pleasure, was the regret felt at your dis- 
appointment, in not being with us. And, at the same time, the only anti- 
dote to that feeling was, and is, a conscious acknowledgment of Divine 
Providence — that it was at least permitted; out of which permission, the 
best possible good for our spiritual states will be drawn : for our heavenly 
doctrines teach us, that the Lord, in the government of his providence, 
looks to eternal states, thus to spiritual things in temporal. And hence, 
just so far as we try and do cast ourselves into the stream of the divine 
providence, just so far will we too regard eternal things in temporal, and 
be carried on in that gentle stream. In that stream, I doubt not, you are 
now floating, and in which you will enjoy inward joy, even amid the trials 
of outward disappointments. And I trust that you are not alone in that 
divine stream of Providence; but that others of us are also floating along 
in its heavenly current. And I often feel to regret, that, even while here 
on earth, we seem thus to have to pass along the tide of life separated in 
body, as to time and space, from those we ardently love. For, while I 
now have the pleasure of the company of two of my dear daughters, to 
whom I am attached with the strongest ties of fatherly affection, still I 
am absent in body from others, whom I love none the less. It would in- 
deed be but saying to you, what, I doubt not, you already believe, that, 
amid all my many defects and short-comings, I nevertheless love my dear 
with a love due to a truly kind and good wife; my dear little daugh- 
ters at home with the love of a tender father; you, as a sister, with the 
love of a brother; and our dear parents with an affection properly due to 
them; and so of other relatives and friends, not only of your blood kin, but 
also of my own natural brothers and sisters. And I am sometimes at least 
disposed to ask, Why is it 1 Why am I thus so much from home? Sure I 
am that it is not because I do not love home ; for I feel an inward con- 
sciousness that I do, and those of my family and friends at home. I am 
ready then again to exclaim, Why is it) Is it from too great a love of 
the world? Is it to supply the demands of fictitious wants'? Alas! I feel 
well assured, that, with mankind in general, the pride of self-love and love 
of the world has produced many, yea, very many, fictitious wants in the 
human family. And are we free from them? Ah! the answer is plain: 
I need not give it. I am often carried back in thought to that age of the 
world, when men were in love of heavenly things; when they lived in 
simplicity of manners, and in charity with each other; when they required 



gO AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

but few things, because their affections were not placed upon things of 
earth, but upon things of heaven ; when they desire4-natural things alone 
for their use, yes, use for each other, and not from accumulation for the 
sake of possessing them; when they thus truly 'looked through nature up 
to nature's God.' I am then carried forward to the present time : and behold 
the contrast! What selfishness! What strength the love of the world 
has upon the affections of men! It then presses upon my mind, J am one 
of the selfish and worldly age; and am I not as deeply imbued with such 
anti-heavenly loves as others'? By hereditary inheritance, I know I am; 
and, if I have not made some advances in regeneration, I am so by prac- 
tice too. But, of my advance in the regenerate life, I am not disposed now 
to speak. My wish is, to be led of the Lord in the stream of his provi- 
dence, and to perform my duty faithfully as a feeble minister in his New 
Church. From this desire I think it is, that I consent now to the very 
great sacrifice I make of my feelings for home, and my ardent love of fa- 
mily and friends. So that, whenever I can see that I can be suitably sus- 
tained in the performance of this use, and at the same time enjoy the bene- 
fit and pleasure of home, family and friends, it will meet with a hearty 
response in my bosom — yea, my soul will heartily respond, amen ! But, 
perhaps, my own selfish and worldly state is not yet sufficiently subdued 
for such a blessed privilege. If not, O may it quickly be accomplished 



in me 



i » 



September 22, '51 : 

"Not long after I moved to this city, the society came into a state some- 
thing like spring and summer, which gave me to expect that a winter 
would some day come. But, as we have to pass through successive states 
of regenerate life, in fitting for heavenly life, and as spring and summer 
are necessary for bringing forth fruit, I sincerely hope that the spring and 
summer alluded to may have produced some good fruit; if some other may 
have been blasted, frostbitten, or taken the rot; and that the sound fruit 
may have ripened in its state, and in a quantity sufficient to sustain the 
society during autumn and winter, until another spring and summer open 
to them. Of this state and condition of the society, there are now strong 
indications, and I hope the coming spring is not far distant. But we 
should wait with patience, if we are found doing all that we can ; for, in 
such case, the Lord will open to his infant church a new state, as her 
members may be prepared to receive with profit. How beautifully our 
Saviour's words come up here: "Take no thought for the morrow, for the 
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself; sufficient unto the day, 
is the evil thereof." Present evils should be put off; and, as they come 
up to be seen by us, they are present, and arc {he day. So that this duty 
is constant with us, and will give us all enough to do. Hence, while at- 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. gl 

tending to this duty, we should constantly and steadily look to the Lord, 
and quietly confide in the goodness of his providential leadings. And 
may we and ours cast ourselves into this blessed stream, feel its comforting 
influence, and be carried on safely in its current 1 And I hope the society 
here are in this effort, and will be abundantly blessed in the effort. And, 
indeed, that every society of the New Church may be doing the same, and 
may experience the same." 

October 14, '51 : 

"Well, with a new page, I will commence a new subject, and one more 
interesting to you than domestic particulars about those with whom you 
have no acquaintance. The subject is the New Church, — yes the New 
Jerusalem spoken of in the Revelations, the morning of which has begun 
to dawn upon the world. There is power in these heavenly doctrines, and 
and there is solid comfort to be drawn from them — or, rather, in them is 
solid and lasting comfort to be found. O what a treasure we are in pos- 
session of! and is it not durable riches'? Can we, with such wealth and 
riches, be poor? Our pockets and purses may be empty of gold and sil- 
ver, as mine frequently are, or nearly so; but, still, are we poor] Yes, 
we may be, and we may be 'poor in spirit;' but, if so, the promise is, 
'Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' May this poverty ever be ours ! For, 
then, we will buy of the Lord 'gold tried in the fire that we may be rich; 
and white raiment, that we may be clothed, that the shame of our naked- 
ness do not appear; and anoint our eyes with eye-salve, that we may see.' 
Do we, then, meet with trials, difficulties, crosses, privations, and other 
obstacles'? let us remember that it is but the fire trying the gold we are 
procuring from the Lord. O, then, let us strive to look steadfastly to him, 
that we may endure these fiery trials with meekness and submission to the 
Divine Willi That we may be able to do as the Apostle James directs — 
'My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; know- 
ing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience 
have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.' 
(Jas. 1, 2-4.) Does not, then, the light of the New Jerusalem, with sci- 
ence, intelligence, wisdom, and her three degrees of love, give true com- 
fort and consolation to the devout and humble recipient, even during the 
journey of life? I doubt not you have found it so; as I feel that I have, 
at least in some degree. But I have said there is a power in our heavenly 
doctrines. This expression was caused now by a remark made to me last 

evening. It was made by Mr. , brother-in-law to the Rev. , the 

Universalist you heard debate. Mr. said, the only religious impressions 

he ever had made on his mind, were made through me, while I was his 
preceptor. He said he felt sure, that, in consequence of their early im- 
pressions, he never could be any thing else than a Newchurchman. He 



82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

further said, (laughingly pointing to an old ragged coat he had on,) I have 
been wearing this old coat to save money to buy Swedenborg's book? with, 
and I have just purchased the Heavenly Arcana and Ap. Rev. He has 
just returned from Pittsburg, where he made the purchase, to have some- 
thing worth reading through the winter. He said universalism could do 
nothing for him. And this is why I said there is power in the doctrines 
of the New Church. And even where persons once favorable succeed, 
from selfish or worldly motives, in resisting them and throwing them off, 
it is hard work for them to do it, because there is power in these heavenly 
doctrines. And why should there not be? for the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
has ' all power in heaven and in earth,' is in them, as their centre, source 
and life; but is not really in any other doctrines. Then 'to whom could 
we go' but to Him? for He 'has the words of eternal life.' Glad indeed 
was I to hear that he could be nothing but a Newchurchman. Neither can 
we be any thing else." 

October 20, '51: 

"You may not only know, when this reaches you, how I have been en- 
gaged this Monday, but you may also see that places no more than times 
can obstruct or hinder my thoughts and affections from reaching you and 
home, although bodily absent. But when this mortal body is laid off, in our 
spiritual bodies, in which our thoughts and affections reside, wherever our 
thoughts and affections go, there we will be present, because thoughts and 
affections themselves are but conditions of the organic substance of the 
soul itself; hence in the spiritual body, and not out of it. The thoughts are 
the variations and changes which the mind takes in knowledges, and affec- 
tions the quality in those changes and variations. 

" Having preached several times since I left home on the subject of man's 
thoughts and affections, is perhaps why I seem to let my mind run on it 
when writing to you, and delight to write in reference to it. And beau- 
tiful and instructive in the light of the new church the subject truly is. 
Beautiful, because the doctrine which unfolds it is true, and the truth of 
the doctrine is from the good of love flowing from the Lord. And beauty 
itself in heaven is but the form of goodness, for beauty in outward form is 
what meets the eye. But, that it may be true beauty, it must have within 
it true virtue or goodness, and this will be seen in the sweet and comely 
form it takes. Female angels, then, are beauties themselves from angelical 
affections. So let those who love beauty, or desire to be beautiful, only 
strive to be good, affectionate, kind and useful, and they will be beautiful. 
True doctrine, then, is beautiful doctrine, because from good. And I 
might say male angels, being forms of charity, which is intelligence and 
wisdom, are by no means ugly beings, but handsome men. But they, too, 
must be good that they may be in charity and love, which is the life of 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. g3 

truth, that their manly appearance may be the true form of intelligence 
and wisdom. What inducements, then, my kind dear, have we, our chil- 
dren and friends, in this heavenly light of the New Jerusalem, to be new- 
church men ! Does not the bare allusion to such conditions of life and 
form in a future world fill the soul with thrilling delight? Does it not 
open to our minds a field of contemplation that knows no bounds? Does 
it not tend to expand our feelings and views, and cause them to extend be- 
yond the narrow contractions of self-love and love of the world? Does it 
not cause emotions to spring up in our bosoms which prompt us truly to 
love one another? O may we ever cultivate heavenly dispositions, hea- 
venly tempers, heavenly desires, and live in the performance of heavenly 
uses? May we, in our natural uses and duties, in the body, be but bringing 
out and fixing deep within us such as are truly heavenly ! May we all do 
so! May not, then, the subject of thought and affection, in the light of the 
new church, be made most instructive. For the all of our spiritual states, 
as well as natural, are involved in them. For it is the man himself. But 
how few understand it, or think extensively on the subject! My dear, I 
am ready to shudder, when I enter deeply into this subject, and try to 
look as deeply into myself. I am ready to exclaim, in the language of 
the Apostle, 'O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the 
body of this death ! ' Hope then springs up, in which I trust, in some mea- 
sure at least, the next verse may be adopted in humility of feeling, 'I 
thank God, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. So then, with the mind I 
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.' You may 
think it a little strange, why I quote from Paul, and not from the Lord's 
own words. But it came into my mind, and seemed appropriate. Of 
course, the Apostle's language must be understood in the light of the new 
church. ■ Through Jesus Christ,' should be thought of as Divinity in Huma- 
nity. But this you clearly understand. 'To serve the law of God' truly, 
whatever may have been in the Apostle's mind, is to be obedient to the 
dictate of spiritual truth, which is now opened by the opening of the spi- 
ritual sense of the Word. 'But with the flesh the law of sin,' is to think, 
feel and act from the impulses of the hereditary natural man, thus from 
proprium. Whether the Apostle so understood his own language or not, 
it matters not; such is the truth in the light of the new church. Have we 
not all need to look deep within ourselves, that we may truly see ourselves ; 
that, in that sight, we may see how we feel towards others inwardly, as- 
well as how we act towards them outwardly? It matters not how good 
any one may be trying to be, an inward look is necessary. In fact, the 
greater the effort to become heavenly good any one may be making, the 
greater the need to look deep within, and the more frequently will he so 
look. And when this takes place, and thoughts about others in compari- 
son with self closely observed, much may be seen necessary to be accom- 
plished. Unkindness to be exchanged for kindness, unforgiveness for for- 



84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

giveness, and many other things. My kind , the more closely I ex- 
amine myself, the more sensible I become of these truths. And do not 
you? Good as I believe you are and are daily trying- to become, I have 
no doubt that you find it so, as well as I do. May we live in daily self- 
examination ! " 

January 2, '52: 

"Much interest was manifested during my visit, and almost one entire 

family appear to be swallowed up in our heavenly doctrines 

I have seldom met with so extraordinary a family — all to appear to be so 
receptive and affectionate. At the house of the old people, where alJ, chil- 
dren and adults, were assembled, I preached Saturday afternoon, and ad- 
ministered the rite of baptism to the eight. Tears of joy and sweet de- 
light were shed on the occasion. They were shed in silence, but in solemn 
and rational enjoyment of the new-church privilege then afforded them. 
I could not refuse them a sympathetic tear ; for I found it force its way 
upon my cheek, during the solemn and religious exercise. The reflec- 
tions afforded, too, were peculiarly interesting. An old, grey-headed gen- 
tleman and his wife, with the innocence of returning infancy, moulded in 
wisdom, depicted on their countenances, with a family of grown up sons 
and daughters, voluntarily, and in an orderly way, entering through the 
gates of the New Jerusalem into the holy city — there to partake, as we 
sincerely trust, of the tree of life, and drink in of the fountain of the water 
of life freely. Who, acquainted with our heavenly doctrines, could wit- 
ness such a sight, and not feel a deep interest in it? Even now, while 
writing to you, it is so fresh to my mind, that tears force themselves into 

my eyes. You speak of my compensation. Yes, my darling , in one 

sense, I am compensated ; and, in that respect to which you allude, un- 
grateful would I be, were I otherwise. May I hold out faithful to the end ! " 

April 8, '52: 

" Of the church in **********, I have not time just now to speak. No- 
thing particularly discouraging, nor any thing very encouraging. Hard 
times — money scarce — poor time to solicit for college or church purposes. 

You know, my dear , that the world is so out of order, that the wrong 

end may be said to be foremost. Generally speaking, every thing else 
must be supplied before there is any thing for religious purposes. Not 
only the necessaries of life, but the luxuries and pleasures. If, after all 
these gratifications, there be any thing left, a little of the balance is dealt 
out sparingly for the support of religion, unless some profitable speculation 
presents itself. I do not wish to write too hard, but it does sometimes 
seem to me, that the Lord's instruction in Matthew, to seekers/ the king- 
dom of God, &c, is reversed by men in the present day. The world is 



THE REV. DAVID POWELL. 85 

is first sought, and then, if there be any time or money to spare, the fag- 
end attention is given to the Lord. The great rush to California seems to 
me to prove this. Do they go there to better their spiritual condition! 
That's the question. I will not answer. But, if I did answer, I would 
have to say, that I fear there are but few, if any, who really have spiritual 
matters uppermost and foremost. How many vainly think happiness con- 
sists in riches and indolence ! They may thus rush to California, in hopes 
they may prove fortunate, obtain plenty of gold, then return, live idly, at 
ease, and be happy. But how mistaken ! The kingdom of God, the only 
source of true happiness, must be within. California gold, however abun- 
dant, cannot plant that kingdom there. No : the divine truth of the Lord's 
Word, as a revelation from himself, known, acknowledged and lived, can 
alone do it for Christians. That truth will teach us what to do, and what 
not to do. It will, if we obey its voice, effect a change in our thoughts 
and affections, make us spiritually minded, and finally introduce us into 
happiness. Gold cannot do it. But I need not write more about this, at 

least for you, ; for you know it already, and you and I feel 

assured that it is not the basis of our happiness. The heavenly doctrines 
of the New Jerusalem are doctrines from the Lord. They draw our minds 
together to the Lord, to inward joy, delight and happiness. May we ever 
live under their blessed light and influence!" 

With these extracts, we close our brief and imperfect addition 
to the autobiography of Mr. Powell. We had hoped to do more 
and better : more worthily, for a most worthy subject ; better, 
for the use and benefit of those who may read this work. As it 
is, we trust that this record of a good man, of one of our church's 
most useful and faithful ministers, of one of the Lord's most 
humble and zealous followers in the way of righteousness and 
peace, may go forth to perform its work, in such wise as to pro- 
mote the good of souls, and thus to continue on earth, and for 
the church on earth, that labour of love which he began in the 
body, and will doubtless not cease to pursue, with heavenly ar- 
dour and wisdom, throughout the endless ages of his eternal life, 
in the Lord's heavenly kingdom of use. 



11 



SERMONS, 



SERMON I. 

PERPETUITY OP THE EARTH. 

J^fyl), XXil). ]. 

" Behold the Lord maheth the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and 
turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants 
thereof." 

Truth does not contradict truth. We need not fear to examine any 
principle or system laid down as true. If one part or position should 
be found to stand in opposition to another, it is evidence that something 
is wrong in it as a whole. And this we say of any theory or doctrinal 
view of Christianity. 

Our present purpose is, to call attention to four prominent doctrines, 
viewed in connection. These are, the destruction of the earth, the se- 
cond coming of the Lord, the resurrection, and the general judgment. 

These events are supposed to be most intimately connected in point 
of natural time, as well as in the manner of their fulfilment : so closely 
connected, both as to time and manner of accomplishment, that one 
cannot take place without the others. The general belief on this sub- 
ject is, that, at some future time, this literal earth will be destroyed, 
and the face of all nature changed ; that then will the Lord Jesus make 
his literal, personal appearance in the natural clouds surrounding the 
earth — at which time, the dead material bodies of all men will be 
raised to life and brought to the last general judgment. These literal 
views, it is claimed, the Scriptures teach. 



gg SERMONS. 

In the present discourse, it is proposed to consider the first point, 
concerning the earth, and to examine the Scriptures on that subject, 
in order to ascertain what they do fairly teach as to its destruction or 
perpetuity. In this examination, we trust it will be distinctly seen in 
what light we may rationally understand the scriptural use of the term 
earth. 

The general teaching on this subject is, that "the visible heavens, 
unable to abide when the Lord shall come in his glory, shall undergo a 
mighty change, and this very suddenly, and with such a noise, as the 
breaking and tumbling down of so great a fabric must necessarily occa- 
sion; that the elements, of which the creatures are composed, shall melt 
with fervent heat, at this coming of the Lord; that the earth also, and 
its inhabitants, and all the works, whether of nature or art, shall be 
destroyed; that all sorts of creatures which God has made, and all the 
works of man, must submit, and must pass through the fire, which 
shall be a consuming fire to all that sin has brought into the world, 
though it may be but a refiner's fire to the works of Grod's hand; that 
the glass of creation being made much brighter, the saints may much 
better discern the glory o/the Lord therein. Now who cannot observe 
what a difference there will be between the first coming of Christ and 
the second ? Yet that is called the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 
(Mai. iv, 5.) How much more dreadful must this coming to judg- 
ment be ! May we be so wise as to prepare for it, that it may not be 
a day of vengeance and destruction unto us. Oh ! what will become 
of us, if we set our affections on this earth, and make it our portion, 
seeing all these things shall be burnt up! Look out, therefore, and 
make sure of a happiness beyond this visible world, which must all be 
melted down." 

Such and similar language is used by the christian world, to teach 
the literal destruction of visible nature; and many frightful and alarm- 
ing descriptions are drawn, to set it forth. 

In calling attention to the subject, it is proposed to consider it, by 
giving the scriptural teaching in relation to the term earth. To do this, 
several classes of scripture passages will be brought forward. Only a 
few of each, however, need be adduced. First, such as declare the 
destruction of the earth; secondly, those that teach its perpetuity; 
thirdly, such as can mean neither, literally; fourthly, some that relate 
to fire. 

First, then, such as declare the destruction of the earth. Isa., xxiv, 
6: " Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell 
therein are desolate : therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, 



SERMON I. 89 

and few men left." Its dissolution and fall are declared in the 19th 
and 20th verses of the same chapter. In Nahum, i, 5, "The earth is 
burned at his presence; yea, the world, and all that dwell therein." 
And the Apostle Peter declares, 2d Epistle, iii, 10, "But the day of 
the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens 
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with 
fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be 
burned up." These may suffice for the first class. 

And here, if we were to stop and examine no further, or were first 
to confirm ourselves in the belief of a literal destruction, we might con- 
clude that the Scriptures teach it. But we will now call attention to 
the second class, teaching the earth's perpetuity. 

In G-en., ix, 12-16, speaking of the covenant which Glod established 
with Noah, and his sons, and their seed after them, and with every 
living creature with them, it is written, "And Grod said, This is the 
token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every 
living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I do set 
my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between 
me and the earth. . . . And the bow shall be in the cloud; and 
I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant be- 
tween Grod and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." 

From this passage, it might be asked, how long, as to time, is per- 
petual and everlasting? Can they ever end? Does not perpetual 
mean "never ceasing, continual, uninterrupted" ? And does not 
everlasting mean "having no end, eternal" ? If we wish to warn 
the wicked of their^danger in the coming life, and admonish them of 
the punishment that awaits them, "where their worm dieth not, and 
their fire is not quenched," (Mark, ix, 44,) do we not tell them that it 
is perpetual, and everlasting? And why have not these expressions 
the same meaning here? For it is said, Ps. cxi, 5, "He hath given 
meat to them that fear him. He will ever be mindful of his covenant." 
His words are eternal truth, if we will but understand them. 

Again, it is said, Ps. lxxviii, 69, "And he built his sanctuary like 
high palaces, [that is, the heights of heaven,] like the earth, which he 
hath established for ever." Here, too, strong language is used. In 
Ps. cxlviii, where the Lord is praised from the heavens, by the angels 
and all his hosts, the language is, "Praise ye him, sun and moon; 
praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, 
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name 
of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created; he hath also 
established them for ever and ever : he hath made a decree which shall 



90 SERMONS. 

not be passed." Could stronger language be used, to declare the sta- 
bility of visible nature ! Should it even be contended, as some have 
done, that the single word "ever" means to the end of natural time, 
but that its repetition also includes eternity, this passage covers the 
whole ground; for here it is said, "for ever and ever." One more 
passage of this class: Eccl., i, 4, speaking of vanity and vanity of vani- 
ties, and the general cycle of things, it is written, " G-eneration passeth 
away, and generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever." 

These passages are sufficient to establish the perpetuity of the earth; 
and just as strongly as the others seem to establish its destruction : but 
both cannot be literally true : and we do not thus bring forward this 
latter class simply to establish the earth's duration from the letter of 
the Word, in opposition to those who believe in its literal destruction, 
and in this way raise a difficulty and leave it there; or attempt to dis- 
prove one doctrine by proving another and opposite one, without offer- 
ing a satisfactory explanation, which may reconcile the two. And for 
this explanation and reconciliation, we are brought to the third class, 
and to the consideration of the spiritual meaning of the term earth, as 
used in the Sacred Scriptures. 

The first we offer is Deut., xxxii, 1 : " Give ear, ye heavens, and 
I will speak; and hear, earth, the words of my mouth." And in 
Jeremiah, xxii, 29: "0 earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the 
Lord." Now what can be plainer than this — that the literal ground 
is not meant. Inanimate and insensible matter cannot hear, and infi- 
nite divine wisdom would not therefore speak to it. Yet these words 
are true. But how are they true? They are easily explained by 
adopting the principle, that the thing or vessel containing is taken and 
used for that which is contained or within it. So here, upon this prin- 
ciple, the earth is mentioned for the people on it. This is literally so. 
And to hear signifies to receive, to give heed to or obey, what is com- 
municated. Therefore, to hear signifies to obey. This also implies a 
knowledge of the things to be obeyed. From which, we may learn, 
that those addressed by the Almighty were those in possession of the 
Word of Revelation. These compose his church. That is, they are 
the church upon the principle laid down. Minds are only recipient 
forms of life; hence they are only recipients of the Lord's truth and 
love. Only in this sense are persons properly the church of the Lord, 
by being recipients of the genuine principles of the church. This ex- 
planation is sufficient to justify us in saying, that, by the term earth, 
the church is meant. This is so particularly where the truths of reve- 
lation arc professed. And this is the uniform meaning of the word 



SERMON I. 91 

earth wherever used in the Sacred Scriptures. Or, in other words, 
where the expression earth occurs in the Scriptures, we must under- 
stand, in addition to its literal historical meaning, when used in an his- 
torical sense, that the church is meant. And this will enable us to 
understand rationally every passage where it occurs, so as to reconcile 
those which, in the sense of the letter, are contradictory, making the 
Word appear to contradict itself, and so as to make obscure passages 
plain. 

In proof of this position, let us bring forward a few other passages, 
where the earth is mentioned. Ps. xxiv, 1, 2: "The earth is the 
Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 
For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods/ ' 
or rivers. The first part of this passage may perhaps be viewed as lite- 
rally true, but the latter part certainly cannot. For the round moving 
ball of matter cannot be so founded and established. But, when it is 
known and understood that water is an emblem of truth, and that seas 
and rivers of waters denote the science or knowledge of truths in a 
complex, abundant and living form, then all is plain. For the church 
is founded upon, and established in, the knowledges of divine truths in 
the minds and lives of men. 

Again: Deut., xxvii, 23, where the children of Israel were promised 
many blessings, if obedient, and threatened with various curses, if dis- 
obedient; one of which was, "And thy heaven that is over thy head 
shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron/' They 
were disobedient; but did this literally befal them? Still it is true. 
In the light of the new church, we can now see that brass in this pas- 
sage is employed to denote natural good, and iron natural truth. By 
acts of disobedience, not strictly obeying the divine law, the interiors 
of theirjninds (heaven is within) were closed against the spiritual in- 
fluence of divine truth and love : so that, in this wicked state, all the 
good and truth they were capable of receiving and enjoying, were 
merely natural, signified by brass and iron. 

Ps. xxxiii, 8: "Let all the earth [that is, the church] fear the 
Lord." Gen. vi, 11: "The earth [the church] also was corrupt be- 
fore God, and the earth was filled with violence." Ps. xxxiii, 5 : 
"The Lord loveth righteousness and judgment, the earth [the church] 
is full of the goodness of the Lord." Ps. xcvii, 1 : " The Lord reign- 
eth, let the earth [the people of the church] rejoice." Bev. xiii, 12 : 
"The beast causeth the earth [the church], and them that dwell there- 
in, to worship the first beast." These proofs may suffice on this 
point. 



92 SERMONS. 

In reference to the fourth point, that the earth is to be destroyed by 
fire, we adduce some passages in reference to fire and its meaning. 

First, Deut. iv, 24: "For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, 
even a jealous God." This cannot mean natural fire. Is not God 
love? The Apostle John says, (I Epistle, iv, 16,) "God is love: 
and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." 
Fire is warm and burning. So is love warming to the soul's affections. 
Hence the correspondence of fire in the Scriptures to love — in its 
highest sense, to love in the Lord. This is its correspondence and 
spiritual signification, either in a good or a bad sense, according to the 
connection, wherever found in the Scriptures. For evil spirits in the 
other world and bad men on earth may abuse, misapply and pervert 
the love of the Lord as it flows into them. In this case, it is to them, 
on account of their evil state, made evil. In their application of it, it 
becomes the love of evil, which is the fire of hell. Therefore, hell-fire 
is but the burning and tormenting lust of evil. And because evil is 
this wrong application, abuse and perversion of good in the recipient 
subject, the term fire, corresponding to love, signifies this in either a 
good or a bad sense. Heavenly fire is heavenly love, or the love of 
good, while hell-fire is infernal love, or the love of evil. 

The way in which good is changed into evil, may be illustrated by 
the way in which the same sun, shining on the thistle and the rose, is 
differently received, and produces different effects. The Lord says, 
(Matt., v, 45,) "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, 
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." But they receive it 
differently — the good as heavenly fire, but the evil as the burning of 
his dreadful wrath. Thus the divine love, tender and merciful as it is, 
is felt by those who are confirmed in wickedness, as the fire of wrath. 
By their awful perversions, they turn his holy love of others into their 
own filthy love of self, thus into hell-fire. When the minister, from 
the sacred desk, prays for holy fire to descend on the altar, &c, what 
else does he pray for, than the outpourings of heavenly love? 

From this signification of fire, we may understand the use of this 
term in these scriptures. Exod., iii, 2: "And the angel of the Lord 
appeared unto him [Moses] in a flame of fire, out of the midst of the 
bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the 
bush was not consumed." Fire here is divine love. Exod., xix, 18 : 
"The Lord descended upon Mount Sinai in fire." This denotes the 
influx of his love of saving souls into the region of human internals. 
II Kings, ii, 11 — where Elijah was taken to heaven in the presence of 
Elisha. As they went on and talked, "Then" appeared a chariot of 



SERMON I. 93 

fire, and horses of fire." Here also fire signifies love in doctrines, and 
in the understanding of them from the Word. Zech., ii, 5 — speaking 
of Jerusalem — " For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire 
round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her." Fire here 
denotes that protection which the Lord effects by his divine love ground- 
ed in the knowledges of truth. Heb., i, 7: "And of the angels he 
saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire." 
This denotes the sphere of the love of souls, which emanates from the 
Lord's true ministers, as zeal, in the active discharge of the duties of 
their sacred functions. Lev., x, 1 : Mention is made of strange fire. 
"And Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord." This 
fire denotes worship of the Lord from the love of self. Lastly, James, 
iii, 6 : "And the tongue is ajire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue 
among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire 
the course of nature : and is set on fire of hell." A correct understand- 
ing of the Apostle's words here will explain the whole subject. The 
tongue means what is spoken. Speech is of thought, and thought pro- 
ceeds from love. Evil love is hell-fire; so, when words proceed by 
the mouth from that evil affection, the tongue is said to be set on fire 
of hell. This shows that hell-fire is but infernal love. Such love of 
evil consumes, destroys, and perverts true faith, and charity grounded 
in a proper acknowledgment of the Lord, which is truly the church in 
man. So this fire of self-love destroys the church. This is the kind 
of fire, of hell-fire, that burns up the world, the earth. 

Turn to Deut., xxxii, 22, and you will find it written, "For a fire is 
kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall 
consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of 
the mountains." This fire, kindled in his anger, is his love changed 
into self-love, and thus, with the evil, perverted into hell-fire, because 
they apply it to evil. This evil love consumes the church, as to the 
principles of charity and faith. For it is said here to consume the 
earth, and we have endeavored to show that by the earth the church 
is meant. 

From these explanations now, we may understand the words of Peter. 
As the Lord himself, and the Prophets before him, in speaking of the 
church, used the term earth, so he has done. He has, in this passage, 
only been teaching the christian people, that the time would come, 
when the first christian church would be overrun and consumed by the 
evils of self-love and love of the world, by reason of which it would be 
brought to a close, at which time the Lord would effect his second 
coming. And this condition of the christian church he has represen- 

12 



94 SERMONS. 

tatively described, by the heavens passing away with a great noise, and 
the elements melting with fervent heat. "The earth also and the 
works that are therein shall be burned up." 

Some may be ready to ask, If the earth means the church, how can 
the church be both destroyed and permanent. There might at first 
seem to be a difficulty involved in this question, but we assure you 
there is none. The earth does mean the church. But there is the 
church militant and church triumphant. Paul, to the Hebrews xii, 
23, says, "But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the 
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company 
of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which 
are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits 
of just men made perfect." This speaks of the church, in her unfa- 
ding glory, in a full and triumphant state, in the eternal world. There 
she is eternally secure, and immovably built upon the Bock of Ages. 
But, while the principles of the church are with men on earth, they 
are subject to great perversions and abuse, and thus the church suffers 
abuse. 

In a word, where the Scriptures speak of changes upon the earth, 
burnings or other disasters, the meaning is, that these things befall the 
church among men in her militant state. But, where the Scriptures 
speak of the perpetuity of the earth, they are to be understood in re- 
ference to the never ending principles of truth and love in the Lord, as 
received by the general assembly and church of the first born — in re- 
ference therefore to the condition, the immovable condition, of the 
Lord's redeemed ones, the church in heaven. This two-fold condition 
of the church, explains why the Word seems to teach both the destruc- 
tion and perpetuity of the earth. By combining all the passages quo- 
ted, and attending to the explanations given, in the spiritual light of 
this doctrine, it will be seen that no contradiction exists, but that all 
is beautifully consistent. 

From what has been said, it may be seen also, that, according to the 
doctrines of the new church, this earth may continue to run undisturbed 
through countless ages, and yet every promise or prediction of the sa- 
cred volume receive its exact fulfilment; and that, whatever may even- 
tually become of this earth, the Scriptures are not to be understood as 
teaching its destruction. 

In conclusion, we offer a word or two in reference to the passage in- 
troducing the lecture. Suppose it should be asked, "Which is the up- 
per side of the earth literally?" what would be the reply? In the 
light of the new church, it would be this: that which is up, or high, 



SERMON I. 95 

denotes what is internal, or held in much esteem. And, as the earth 
means the church, the upper side of it must mean the church's internal 
principle, which is the highest love of the church ; and this is love to 
the Lord : while the lowest, in this sense, is the love of self. But, 
when these loves, now perverted in man's fall, become inverted into 
their true order, the Lord is spiritually said to turn the earth upside 
down. The Lord is also naturally said to turn the earth upside down, 
when, speaking according to the fallacious appearances of human sense, 
he describes, in the letter of his Word, man's own perversion, or ra- 
ther, to use a more perfect antithesis, outversion of the true order of 
these loves, wherein self predominates — wherein the Lord is professed 
and claimed to be loved only for the sake of self and the world. 

Are there not strong indications that such is the case in the present 
day ? But we trust the Lord is rapidly producing the new heavens 
and the new earth — that new and true christian church on earth — 
"wherein dwelleth righteousness"; so as most mercifully to afford to 
us a fulfilment of the prophetic enunciation of our text in the spiritual 
or good sense. 



In this sermon as written, there here follow a certain note and 
reference, indicating that Mr. Powell, in the delivery of it, expatiated 
more at large on the text extemporaneously. 



96 SERMONS. 



SERMON II. 

SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, AND FALSE CHRISTS. 

No prophecy understood till after its fulfilment. 

Kftftfietb, xxio, 4 5. 

44 And Jesus, answering, said to them. See, lest any one deceive you. For 
many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall 
deceive many." 

In verses 23 and 24, it is recorded, "Then, if any one shall say to 
you, Behold, here is the Christ; or there; believe it not. For there 
shall arise false Christs, and false prophets; and shall give great signs 
and prodigies; so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect." 

In considering our present subject, we intend, first, to offer some re- 
marks as to the fulfilment of these predictions; secondly, to take a ne- 
gative view, by showing how the true Christ cannot come, because con- 
nected with the coming of false Christs; thirdly, to examine some 
scriptural passages in reference to clouds ; and fourthly, to take the af- 
firmative view, and explain how the true Christ effects his second 
coming, what false Christs are, and how such come in the same way 
that the true one comes, so as to be able to deceive. 

First, then, in reference to the fulfilment of these predictions. The 
words of the text are part of our Lord's reply to his disciples, on their 
coming to him privately and saying, "Tell us, when shall these things 
be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the 
world?" Hence their connection with the subject of the second com- 
ing of the Son of Man. 

The literal things referred to in the question put by the disciples, 
were the buildings of the temple, concerning which our Lord had de- 
clared, "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall 
not be thrown down." 



SERMON II. 97 

The destruction of this temple, then, was the particular subject of 
conversation, in the sense of the letter. From this, it has been sup- 
posed, that this event is the principal subject of the Lord's instruction 
in this place — particularly in the fore part of this chapter; and also in 
Mark and Luke, where the same subject is treated of: consequently, 
that the disasters spoken of, are only descriptive of the calamities which 
befel the Jewish Nation at the time of the overthrow and destruction 
of Jerusalem and its temple. 

It is admitted, however, that other parts of the same chapters do 
treat of the second (supposed) personal coming of the Lord, and the 
dissolution of all things, so generally looked for. But, according to 
the doctrines of the new church, such is not their meaning, in a strictly 
literal sense and application. First, because there is no such distinc- 
tion expressed in the divine record. Secondly, Because the parts sup- 
posed to refer to Jewish calamities, and the destruction of the temple 
at Jerusalem, and those referring to the second coming of the Son of Man, 
are connected by the word " immediately. " From which fact, the new 
church believes that it is contrary to sound reason, and the common use 
of language, to say that an event, and the circumstances attending it, 
which took place about the year 70 of the christian era, and one which 
has not yet literally taken place, although nearly 2000 years have 
passed by since the accomplishment of the first, should nevertheless be 
coupled together by the positive declaration "immediately." Thirdly, 
Because, upon good authority, it appears, that John was not banished 
by Domitian into the Isle of Patmos, where he is said to have received 
and written his Revelations, till about the year 96; and in this 
Book, then written, he speaks of the coming of the Lord, and of the 
precise manner of that coming. Rev. i, 7: "Behold, he cometh with 
clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they which pierced him; and 
all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen." 
And certainly infinite wisdom would not dictate a prediction, yet future, 
to be written about twenty-six years after its actual accomplishment. 
Fourthly, and lastly on this point, Because the whole prophetic teach- 
ing is given in one unbroken and connected series. For the conversa- 
tion between the Lord and his disciples commences about the Jewish 
temple. In the question which introduces the subject, the disciples 
ask him concerning its destruction, the sign of his coming, and the 
consummation of the age; and his reply, is to all the things concern- 
ing which they asked him. Thus it would seem, that no doubt could 
remain, but that, in the divine mind, one and the same event was the 
subject of divine thought. Hence, all that is predicted on the occasion 



98 SERMONS. 

has a distinct and direct reference to the coming of the Son of Man, 
and is connected with that event. 

And why, it might be asked, should it ever have been supposed that 
events so distant from each other, and so dissimilar in character, should 
be thus promiscuously blended together? Is it not in consequence of an 
effort to drag down the high and holy principles of the Divine Word from 
the teaching of spiritual and heavenly things, so as to make it teach lite- 
ral, external things only ? Is it not from having the mind placed upon 
earthly things, and from its being kept there in natural light, by a doc- 
trine which so interprets the Sacred Scriptures ; and thus makes the pre- 
dictions of the Lord concerning the coming of the Son of Man treat only 
of the earthly temple, and, at the same time and in the same connec- 
tion, of other events equally literal, such as the end of the world, and 
the personal appearing of the Lord in the clouds, which are sup- 
posed to take place hundreds, if not thousands, of years after the first, 
and yet to be connected together in their prediction by the term " im- 
mediately" ? 

But, in whatever light this prediction of the Lord may be understood 
or explained by different sects, it is believed, in the new church, that it 
is connected in its detail in point of time j that its fulfilment is no less 
connected ; and that the second coming of the Lord, which is the coming 
of the Son of Man, is involved in the whole of the Lord's prophecy. 

As to this event, it is generally believed that it will be a literal per- 
sonal appearing of Jesus Christ in the natural clouds over our heads, 
attended with the complete destruction, or purification by fire, of this 
earth and the visible universe. But the new church takes another, 
and an entirely different view of the whole subject. And this brings 
us to the second point of our discourse, in which we propose to take a 
negative view, by showing how the true Christ cannot come, as it is sup- 
posed he will come, in the literal watery particles of the atmosphere ; and 
this, because such a coming is connected with the coming of false Christs. 

Believing, as the new church does, that the coming of the Son of Man 
and the consummation of the age are the distinct things of the Lord's 
prophecy in his answer to his disciples, connected, in the context, 
with the pretensions of false Christs, it can see why the caution, not to 
be deceived, is given. 

Now, in order to have a clear understanding of the subject, we wish 
it to be kept in mind, that the true coming of Christ is to be attended 
with the pretensions of false Christs. Hence it is evident, that the 
false will come, or docs come, in like manner as the true Christ comes. 
If otherwise, there could be no liability to deception. 



SERMON II. 99 

This is unavoidably the case, because the precise manner in which 
the true Christ is declared to make his appearance, is distinctly pointed 
out in the very prophecy which announces the event. The exact man- 
ner is as positive as the promise itself, and is equally entitled to belief. 
It is declared to be in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 

In order to bring this negative view of the subject fairly before the 
mind, let us suppose a case. Suppose a noted individual should leave 
your community, promising that he would return to it again; that he 
had caused the promise of his return to be written in a book, and had 
pointed out the precise manner in which he would come j say, riding in 
a carriage. That, at the same time, he had caused it to be recorded that 
others would come, claiming to be the person referred to in the book. 
In process of time, there comes one, who sets up the claim that he is 
the individual who has promised to return. But, he comes riding on 
horseback. Now, by examining the record of the book, would he not 
at once be pronounced an impostor, because he did not come in the 
manner specified therein? In short, could any individual in the com- 
munity that retained full faith and confidence in the promises of the 
book, be deceived by any person's coming in any other way than riding 
in a carriage? But, if he were to come in a carriage, in the very 
way in which the noted individual had promised to come, they might 
be deceived. The only way the true person could be distinguished 
from false pretenders, would be by some signs, power, or demonstra- 
tion, other than the mere manner of his coming, and such as the pre- 
tenders could not give, although they might imitate them. 

Let us now apply this principle to our present subject. And, if it 
be properly considered, it will, of itself, show conclusively, that the se- 
cond coming of the Lord cannot be a mere personal bodily coming in 
the literal clouds which float aloft over our heads. Because, according 
to all known laws of science, it would be impossible for any one to as- 
cend into the literal watery particles of the atmosphere, in order to de- 
scend again, with the proclamation that he was the Christ. But, should 
some aeronaut make the attempt in a balloon, or something else equally 
unstable, would he be likely to succeed? Hence it is not even proba- 
ble that any one would undertake so hazardous an adventure, for the 
mere purpose of deceiving mankind, or that he could himself be deluded 
into the vain belief that he was really Christ. Nothing, then, short 
of a miracle could enable any one to take his station in the clouds for 
any purpose; and surely this will not be granted by the Lord to pre- 
tenders, for the purpose of deceiving mankind. One deceiver would 
not be sufficient; for the caution speaks of many. But, even suppose 



100 SERMONS. 

some individual, or individuals, should succeed in posting himself, or 
themselves, up in the clouds; what would be the effect? Could he, or 
they, possibly produce such appearances as it is declared shall attend 
the coming of the Son of Man ? How could he, or they, possibly pro- 
duce such things as are predicted shall take place even before the com- 
ing of the sign of the Son of Man in heaven ? And mark, these things 
are : " that, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun 
shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars 
shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.' ' 
Now, we ask, could any believer in the written Word of Revelation, 
be deceived by any person coming and literally saying, "I am Christ," 
without the phenomena referred to having first taken place ? And it is 
hardly to be supposed, that any one, who does not believe in the truths 
of the Bible, should believe any thing of the whole matter. We say, 
then, not only in respect to true believers in the Scriptures, but also in 
respect to all persons whosoever admit their truths, — and certainly none 
others could be deceived, howmuchsoever they might be disappointed, 
— that, in order to deceive, false Christs must come in a way similar to 
the coming of the true Christ. And, what is more, their coming must 
be attended with similar circumstances — at least so far as the Sacred 
Scriptures afford direct teaching on the subject. And further, — in ad- 
dition to what has been said of the impossibility of men's aping Christ, 
so as to deceive those who abide in the teaching of the Word, — if his 
coming were to be a literal personal coming, the deceiver, or false Christ, 
would have to show forth power and great glory. Of this, however, 
we think there is no great danger. 

Here we remark, that these difficulties, attending the personal ap- 
pearing of the Lord in the literal clouds surrounding our earth, can- 
not be reconciled to the thoughtful and inquiring mind, by any blind 
assumption that it must be so literally whether we can understand it 
or not. It contradicts reason. Such an assumption might have been 
allowed once, but that time is passing rapidly away. Nor can they be 
reconciled by any unwarrantable assumption to the effect that a part of 
the prophecy is to be understood literally and a part is to be taken 
figuratively. No such distinction is marked in the prophecy concern- 
ing the coming of the Lord and the deception of false Christs. Be- 
sides, such a course would be treating the sacred volume with unautho- 
rized license. 

The coming of false Christs, and all the other circumstances connected 
therewith, arc as much the plain and positive predictions of the Lord, 
as are the coming of the Son of Man, and the end of the world, or con- 



SERMON II. 101 

summation of the age. Consequently, one is as much entitled to literal 
construction and belief as the other. 

But the caution is, "Take heed that no one deceive you." This 
will imply also a caution, that you deceive not yourselves in this mat- 
ter. The Scriptures of Truth are given to men to be understood : they 
should therefore employ their understandings in that way. Hence, if 
any doctrine or view of the Word be presented, which is contradictory, 
or contrary to sound reason or common sense, another and better way 
should be looked for. Now, from what has been said on this point of 
our present subjeet, let men exercise their rational mind, and look at it, 
and see if it is not a clear point, in this negative view, that the Lord's 
second coming cannot be a literal personal coming in the natural clouds 
above our heads ! Can they not see, that, if this were to be the case, 
in the precise literal manner pointed out in the prophecy itself, it would 
be contrary to sound reason and common sense, to caution mankind not 
to be deceived, to beware of false Christs, where the power of deception 
was so completely placed beyond the reach of impostors ? For we con- 
tend, that the caution being given by infinite wisdom, is evidence of 
the possibility of deception. 

We conclude this division of our subject, then, by saying, that false 
Christs make their appearance with the coming of the true Christ. There- 
fore, in whatever manner the true comes, so do the false; and in what- 
ever way false Christs cannot possibly come, the true Christ does not; 
and, as false Christs cannot come in the material clouds around the earth, 
neither is the true Christ to come literally and personally in those ma- 
terial clouds. 

But there is a way in which both come, as the Scriptures distinctly 
teach; and that way is in the clouds of heaven. But what are the 
clouds of heaven ? Not, surely, the watery particles of the atmosphere ; 
for these are but vapors, belonging to the earth. Christ is promised to 
come in heavenly clouds. Where then is heaven, that we may know 
whither to turn our attention, to behold its clouds. The Lord answers : 
for he says, " Neither shall they say, Lo here ! or, Lo there ! for behold, 
the kingdom of G-od is within you." (Luke, xvii, 21.) It is the Lord's 
truths in the understandings of men, from a principle of love in their 
wills. And these truths are his Word — " Sanctify them through thy 
truth : thy Word is truth." And this brings us properly to the third 
part of our discourse, in which we are to examine some scriptural pas- 
sages in reference to clouds. 

That the reason for the meaning of clouds in the Scriptures may be 
seen in clearer light, we simply remark, that natural clouds obscure 

13 



102 SERMONS. 

natural light. So does ambiguity of expression, or ignorance of what 
is expressed, obscure the light of truth. Remove either, and the truth 
may be seen. 

Natural clouds are of various densities and appearances : so are there 
different degrees of obscurity in which truths are seen and understood . 
In short, clouds, as a medium, present light but obscurely. Hence, 
when any thing is but indistinctly understood, or not understood at all, 
it is commonly said to be enveloped in a cloud. Therefore, the term 
cloud, as used in the Scriptures, according to the science of correspon- 
dence, signifies the letter or literal sense of the Divine Word, or the 
obscure manner in which its spiritual truths are understood by men, or 
not understood at all by the merely natural mind. Divine and hea- 
venly principles are thus addressed to mankind through the medium of 
the letter of Scripture; and that is why that sense is called the clouds 
of heaven. Jehovah thus manifested himself in ancient times; and 
the wise men of those times wrote their books in a similar style. 

But we now ask attention to the evidence and rationality of this ex- 
planation, drawn from the Sacred Records. Gen., ix, 13 : Jehovah 
says, "I do set my bow in the cloud," &c. This is a token of man's 
regeneration and consequent conjunction with the Lord by the medium 
of the letter of the Word. So, when Pharaoh, the oppressive king of 
Egypt, and his dreaded host, pursued the children of Israel, it is said, 
"The angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed, 
and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their 
face, and stood behind them: and it came between the camp of the 
Egyptians, and the camp of Israel ; and it was a cloud and darkness to 
them, but it gave light by night to these ; so that the one came not near 
the other all the night." (Ex., xiv, 19, 20.) This cloud is the literal 
sense of Scripture. Egypt denotes the natural mind separate from the 
spiritual. Israel is the spiritual mind, or church, in the effort of rege- 
neration. Temptation is the night in which they are. Spiritual truths 
within the letter, are light to Israel, or to the mind in a state of spirit- 
ual discernment; but they are darkness to Egypt, or to the mind in a 
merely natural state, obfuscated by the falsities of evil, and conse- 
quently in entire doubt and denial. 

Ex., xvi, 10: "It came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole con- 
gregation of the children of Israel, that they looked towards the wil- 
derness, and behold the glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud." This 
cloud is the letter, that is, truth accommodated to man's apperception ; 
but the glory is the internal sense. When the spiritual truths of the 
Divine Law became clothed with men in literal precepts, the same rule 



SEKMON II. 103 

is observed : " Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may 
hear, when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever." (Ex., xix, 9.) 

Ex., xxxiv, 5: So, when Moses went up into the mount, to receive 
the Divine Law on tables of stone, " A cloud covered the mount. And 
the glory of Jehovah abode upon Mount Sinai six days : and the seventh 
day, he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud." Deut., 
xxxiii, 26 : " There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth 
upon the heaven in thy help; and his excellency on the sky (clouds)." 
I Kings, viii, 10, 11 : Attending the dedication of the great temple 
built by Solomon, u It came to pass, when the priests came out of the 
holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord; so the priests could 
not stand to minister because of the cloud ; for the glory of Jehovah 
had filled the house of the Lord." Ps. xxxvi, 5: "Thy mercy, O 
Jehovah, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the 
clouds." Ps. lvii, 10: "For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and 
thy truth unto the clouds." Ps. lxviii, 34: "Ascribe ye strength 
unto God; his excellency is over Israel, and his strength in the clouds." 
Ps. civ, 3 : "He maketh clouds his chariots." Isa., xix, 1 : "Behold, 
the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt," &c. 
Isa., iv, 5: "And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of 
Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and a flaming 
fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defence." How truly 
and beautifully does this last passage show the doctrine we have been 
attempting to establish, viz., that cloud signifies the truth accommodated 
in the literal sense of the Word. The glory and power is in the truths 
of the internal sense of the Sacred Scriptures, which is their spiritual 
sense, and is that which is understood in spiritual discernment, accord- 
ing to the Apostle (I Cor., ii, 11-14); while the literal sense can be 
made to prove almost any thing and every thing by the natural mind; 
remaining, at the same time, a covering and defence against the profa- 
nation of the holy things of their inward power and life. 

If we turn now to the New Testament, we will find a similar use of 
the term clouds. Matt., xvii, 5 : In reference to the transfiguration of 
the Lord, it is said, "While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud over- 
shadowed them ; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This 
is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." The literal historical 
sense of the Gospel does teach the doctrine that Jesus Christ is the son 
of God. This is "the cloud." And a cloud it certainly is to many minds; 
because, in them, the Father and Son have a personal separation. 

Kev., x, 1 : John saw a mighty angel come down from heaven, 
"clothed with a cloud." Rev., xi, 12: The two witnesses "ascended 



104 SERMONS. 

up to heaven in a cloud ; and their enemies beheld them." Rev., xiv, 
14: "And I looked, and behold, a white cloud; and upon the cloud 
one like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and 
in his hand a sharp sickle." "And another angel came out of the tem- 
ple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy 
sickle and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest 
of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle 
on the earth; and the earth was reaped." (Verse 15.) Now, if clouds 
are to be understood literally, why not the sickle too ? You have as 
much authority for the one as for the other; for both are literally men- 
tioned. The idea of a metal sickle in such a position, would be no 
more absurd, than the idea of material clouds in connection with the 
Lord's coming. But sickle signifies the divine truth by which judg- 
ment is effected ; and the reaping of the earth with it, denotes the 
judgment of the church thereby. 

Now, if by clouds, in the Scriptures, we are to understand the va- 
pours above the earth, or such as appear in stormy weather, is it not 
remarkable that so many scriptural occurrences should have taken place 
in such weather? 

The term cloud, or clouds, is used in more than one hundred places 
in the Bible ; and we feel well assured that, if any one were to examine 
them, he would be satisfied that the watery particles of the atmosphere 
are not to be understood by that term in the Scriptures. 

What else, then, can they mean but the literal sense, as the cover- 
ing, or the containing vessel, of the spiritual sense ? And thus we come 
to the fourth point of our discourse, in which we take the affirmative 
view, and explain how the true Christ effects his second coming; and 
what false Christs are; and how such come in the same way to men 
that the true one comes, and may therefore deceive. This point fol- 
lows as a consequence from previous explanations; but, to make it ap- 
pear plain, it must be seen in connection with them. 

The Word is the Lord. (John, i, 1.) Hence the true doctrine of 
the Word is the true Christ. When this is unfolded as to its true in- 
ternal spiritual meaning, as a uniform and infallible system, then Christ 
is come. His second coming, then, consists in the opening, or explain- 
ing, of the Sacred Scriptures, so that they may be rationally and spirit- 
ually understood, which is signified by seeing, and is their internal 
.sense. This is now done in the writings for the new church, so that 
we are actually now beginning to enjoy the blessings of his second ad- 
vent! But let us, for a few moments, view the subject in connection 
with false Christs. 



SERMON II. 105 

All christian sects go to the letter of the Word to prove their doc- 
trines ; and each sectarian can find something which he can construe 
to favor his peculiar system or belief. Every wrong application of the 
Word, or every false doctrine, made so by falsifying the letter of the Word, 
is a false Christ. We do not specify any by name. We sum them up 
in the general expression false doctrines — false teachings of every de- 
scription of doctrine — claimed to be drawn from the Word of God as 
divine truth. Whatever doctrine is taught from the Word, claiming 
to be of G-od, saying this is of faith, when it is not the true teaching 
of the Word, is a false Christ. 

And who can look abroad over the world, and behold the religious 
teachings in the present day, and not be satisfied, if it be admitted that 
false doctrines are false Christs, that many have come in that character? 

And this shows, too, the way in which the true Christ comes. True 
doctrine is taught in the letter of the Word. That doctrine is the true 
spiritual sense of its letter. And this spiritual sense is the true Christ. 
When, therefore, the Word's true internal meaning, or spiritnal sense, 
is revealed in its letter, the true Christ comes in it. The false Christ 
is nothing else than a falsification of the true sense of the letter, or a 
malconstruction of it. No one, therefore, need mistake us in this matter. 
While we say distinctly that all false doctrines drawn from the letter 
of the Word are false Christs, we as distinctly say that any falsity is 
not in the letter of the Word, but in the systems which pervert it. 

Let it be understood, then, that the true or legitimate doctrine of 
the letter of the Word is the true Christ; for the true doctrine is 
taught in the letter of the Word, as well as the false doctrines drawn 
from it by a perversion of its legitimate teaching. 

This letter is "the clouds of heaven/' while the internal or spiritual 
sense within it is "the power and great glory;" and, when this sense 
is seen in the letter, Christ, or "The Truth, the Way, and the Life," 
is seen "coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." 

Therefore it is now quite clear how false Christs can come as the 
true Christ, and deceive. For false doctrines can be taught from the 
letter of the Word, just as true doctrines are taught from it. And 
because the false as well as the true are taught from the letter of the 
Word, therefore both come, to the simply good members of the church, 
in "the clouds of heaven." In this way only can false Christs come 
in the clouds of heaven, by men falsifying the letter, which in itself is 
not false. [And the signs and wonders, or miracles; which these 
false Christs work, to deceive "the elect," are those revivals of reli- 
gion which the preachers of such false doctrines produce by the excite- 



106 SERMONS. 

ment of enthusiastic spirits.] In this way, false Christs can come, 
and have come, and do come — although they do not as persons post 
themselves up in the watery particles of the atmosphere. In a word, 
false Christs come to men in the form of preachers of false doctrines; 
and in this way they may most manifestly prove deceptive ; and there 
can be very little doubt that many innocent minded persons have been, 
and still continue to be, deceived by them. And such preachers of 
false doctrines, are false prophets. 

In conclusion, we remark, that the new church believes, that "the 
morning comes," as well as "the night;" and that "now" is the "ac- 
cepted time," or the "morning," of the new dispensation — that Christ 
has actually come in the manner pointed out, that is, in the true doc- 
trine, or spiritual sense, of his Holy Word — that he comes in the union 
of charity, faith and good works in and by that doctrine, as a matter 
of spiritual and heavenly life in the members of his new and true chris- 
tian church — that he comes in the teaching of the true doctrine of his 
Word respecting himself as a trine of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in 
one divine person, and by whom is the atonement, or reconciliation of 
man to God, and man's consequent redemption and salvation — that he 
comes in the opening of the Sacred Scriptures, so as to reconcile or do 
away the apparent contradictions of their letter, and bring immortality 
more manifestly to light by the Gospel, in a display of the true nature 
of the resurrection of the dead to a future life — that he comes in an 
immediate revelation of very many knowledges respecting the existence 
of a heaven, and a hell, and in general respecting the true nature and 
laws of the spiritual world, and its instant and constant operation in or 
upon the natural world — that he comes to the church-, and the indivi- 
dual minds of its members, as truth in all its bright array, clearing far 
off the clouds of religious ignorance and intolerance — yes ! that he comes 
with lovem truth, warming and revivifying the inward life of the soul, 
causing the good affections of charity to spring up and grow, bearing 
the fruits of his righteousness, joy and peace — yes ! that he has actually 
come in the doctrines of his Word as its true internal or spiritual sense ! 

And this doctrine is offered, to an agitated, distracted and needy 
world, in the writings of the new church. "But who may abide the 
day of his coming ? and who shall stand, when he approachcth? for 
lie is like refiner's fire and fuller's soap." And "he shall sit as a re- 
finer and purifier of silver," and "he shall purify (he sons of Levi." 

May countless multitudes hasten to receive him, acknowledge the 
truths of his second advent, and, with heartfelt rejoicing, crown him 
Lord of All! vYmcn. 



sermon iir, 107 



SERMON III. 

FIRST ON THE RESURRECTION, 

Angels live without material bodies. 

Iota xi, 23-56. 

u Jesus saith unto her, Thy hrother shall rise again. Martha saith 
unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at 
the last day. Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection, and the 
life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : 
and whosoever liveth, and believeth in ME, shall never die. Be- 
lievest thou this?" 

In two former discourses, it was stated, that the destruction of the 
earth, with visible nature, the second personal coming of Christ, the 
resurrection of the dead, nieaning the material bodies of men in the 
last day, and the final general judgment of all, are events inseparably 
connected. They make a kind of theologic chain, which has generally 
been acknowledged. And as one is understood, so must the others be. 
Therefore, to take away the common view of either point, or link, is to 
make the whole give way, and render necessary an entirely different 
understanding of the subject. 

The two points concerning the earth and the second coming have 
been considered; and we are now. to consider the third. 

If the positions taken in our previous discourses be true, then must 
the doctrine of the resurrection be understood in a sense different from 
that of the resurrection of the material bodies of men. But we feel no 
desire thus to seem obnoxious to the charge of begging the question. 
Nay, we rather desire that the whole subject may be carefully and 
fully investigated, and rationally demonstrated, so that it may be seen 
to be true in its own light, according to the doctrines of the new church. 



108 SERMONS. 

The third link in this theologic chain, the resurrection, being now to 
be examined, we think the true doctrine of the Word respecting it, lies 
couched within, and may be drawn from, our present text. 

In this passage of the Divine Teaching may certainly be found the 
true doctrine concerning life, death, and the resurrection. Two sisters, 
Martha and Mary, are weeping over a beloved brother, whom they sup- 
pose to be dead. His body has been devoid of life four days, and is 
now lying in the grave. The Lord Jesus is sought and found. He 
comes to the grave of the beloved Lazarus, and calls him forth by the 
mighty power of his living voice. But this reanimation of the cold 
tenement of clay does not make it spiritual, nor deliver it from the power 
of subsequent natural dissolution. At least, there is no evidence that 
it does. 

This whole narrative of the sickness, death and resurrection of La- 
zarus, certainly furnishes, in its spiritual explication, the most suitable 
occasion for imparting the correct doctrine on the subject under consi- 
deration. Consequently, if we can understand aright the Lord's in- 
struction in this place, we will have the true doctrine of the Scriptures, 
in all other places, on the resurrection. For the Lord does not teach 
in one place what he contradicts in another, however much, in some 
places, it may so appear in the sense of the letter. Neither do his 
apostles teach a doctrine at variance with the teachings of their Divine 
Master. In all the appearances of such a contradiction, the defect is 
in us, poor erring mortals, who look too much to self and outward or 
natural things, and too little to the Lord and the inward spiritual things 
of his Holy Word. May we all lift up our minds and have them open 
to the Lord and heavenly things, so that we may "come to understand- 
ing/' and "learn doctrine." 

We propose to explain our present text, and to examine its doctrinal 
teaching, by showing, first, the natural and mistaken idea of the resur- 
rection, such as admitted by the Pharisees in Acts, xxiii, 8, and the 
spiritual and correct idea which the Lord imparts; secondly, the scrip- 
tural meaning of life and death; and thirdly, what are the graves out 
of which the dead are said to be raised. 

1st. Must not every attentive reader of our text sec at once that the 
literal idea contained in the words uttered by Martha, is different from 
that expressed by the Lord himself? The Saviour tells her, "Thy 
brother shall rise." His material body was dead. This was in the 
mind of the mourning sister, Martha. She therefore says to the Lord, 
"I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 
Is not this natural idea of a bodily resurrection at the end of the world, 



SERMON IIL 109 

as expressed by Martha, the idea generally prevailing in the christian 
world? For the general language on this subject is, "that, at the last 
day, there shall be a general resurrection of the dead, both of the just 
and of the unjust; when they that are then found alive shall in a mo- 
ment be changed; and the self-same bodies of the dead, which wert 
laid in the grave, being then again united to their souls for ever, shall 

be raised up by the power of Christ The bodies of the 

unjust shall, by the power of Christ, be raised to dishonor; the bodies 
of the just, by his spirit, unto honor; and be made conformable to his 
own glorious body." But does the Saviour, in his reply, sanction such 
a doctrine ? Does he leave any room for the mind to rest in such an 
idea? Certainly not. For he promptly replies to her, "I am the re- 
surrection and the life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall 
never die." The only condition for attaining to the life at which he 
points, is that of a belief in him. And this is not an act of the mate- 
rial body, but of the immaterial soul. Besides, if we apply his instruc- 
tion to the material bodies of men, — bad as men are and have been, — 
it would prove that there had not been a believer in the Saviour from 
the time of the utterance of these words up to the present generation. 
For the words are, "and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall 
never die : " but the bodies of all men have died up to the present time; 
which proves one of two things, either that there has been no true be- 
liever in Christ, or that the death of the material body is not here 
meant. The latter, no doubt, is the truth. 

From this fact, is it not manifest, that material bodies, the dead car- 
cases of men, were not in the thoughts of the Divine Mind, when ut- 
tering these words; and, consequently, that resuscitating them in the 
last day of natural time, forms no part of the Lord's doctrine of the 
resurrection. 

The literal idea, as expressed by Martha, is such as merely natural 
men have ; for, when they think of men, or speak of men, the body is 
regarded as the man. So, when they think of resurrection, a rising of 
the material body is thought of. But this is not the case in the Divine 
Light of the Lord; nor with man in spiritual discernment. For, when 
those who are in this light reflect upon man, they regard his soul as 
the real man; and, when they think or speak of resurrection, the soul's 
separation from the material body and entrance into the spiritual world, 
is the subject of their thought. 

This is said in reference to what takes place with all men at the time 

14 



HO SERMONS. 

of natural death, but not in reference to the spiritual meaning of resur- 
rection, which relates to man's reformation and regeneration. 

As the Lord evidently did not speak of the material bodies of men 
in his instruction to Martha, and yet did teach a resurrection to life, 
must he not have spoken in reference to the souls of men? Hence it 
is the doctrine of the new church, in reference to the fact itself of a 
future life, "that, immediately on the death of the material body, which 
will never be resumed, man rises again as to his spiritual or substan- 
tial body, wherein he exists in a perfect human form, and thus, that 
death is only a continuation of life." 

The true personal resurrection, then, takes place at the death of the 
material body, and consists in raising the spiritual body, of which Paul 
speaks, out of the natural body. Consequently, the spiritual or real 
body of every person is, during natural life, in the natural body. The 
sensation retained after any member of the body has been amputated, 
proves this. Cut off an arm, the person still retains the feeling of 
having an arm remaining unimpaired. So of a hand, finger, leg, or 
foot. 

The soul, then, in the general meaning of that term, of spiritual 
substance and in human form, is truly the spiritual body that is raised. 
Hence it follows, that the body to be raised is already a spiritual body 
in man, and is not, correctly speaking, laid in a literal natural grave. 
But, when the soul, the spiritual body, is separated from the material 
bddy, which, in one sense, is its grave, at the time when what we call 
death takes place, it is sweetly and gently conducted, by guardian an- 
gels from the Lord, into the life of the spiritual world. 

The real man is thus resuscitated and brought to the conscious reality 
of a living being in human form. With him, the awful dread of death 
and dying has now passed away, and the risen being can rejoice, that 
he is still living in most substantial form; that he has safely entered 
upon the certainty of immortality; and that death is neither annihila- 
tion, nor an eternal sleep. 

These remarks have been made in reference to what may be termed 
a personal resurrection, that is, man's entrance into the spiritual world 
as a living being, but not in reference to the spiritual meaning of life, 
death and resurrection, in their relation to the quality, state or condi- 
tion of the soul, in which is involved the doctrine of reformation, rege- 
neration, salvation and heavenly life, or rejection and condemnation. 
All these are involved in the true scriptural idea of life, death and re- 
surrection. The merely natural and mistaken idea is, to apply them 
to the material bodies of men when mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures. 



SERMON III. HI 

But the true spiritual idea involved in them, which is the correct one, 
is to apply the terms life, death, and consequently resurrection, to the 
souls of men, to express their state or condition in reference to heavenly 
life or misery. And this brings us to the second division of our sub- 
ject — The scriptural meaning of life and death. 

And here it may be asked at once, Of what death, in reference to 
man, do the Scriptures teach? Is it strictly of the death of the body, 
or of the soul ? And must not the resurrection be understood accord- 
ingly? If the true sense of Scripture, seen in spiritual light, "which 
is able to make wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ 
Jesus," teaches that, by death, or dying, principally and essentially, 
the death of the corporeal body is meant, then indeed it might be 
claimed for resurrection, that it means a resurrection of the same. But, 
on the other hand, if the true sense of Scripture teaches that, by death, 
principally and essentially, a certain state or condition of the soul of 
man, and not of his material body, is meant, then indeed may it in 
truth be claimed for resurrection, that it relates to the soul, and not to 
the material body. Let us then see, by reference to the sacred volume, 
to which of these it most fitly applies. 

In Ps. xxxiii, 18, 19, it is written, " Behold, the eye of Jehovah is 
on them that fear him, on them that hope in his mercy: to deliver 
his soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." This speaks 
of the death of the soul. 

In the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, it is said, more than once, " the 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." And here we may make this general 
remark, that, wherever death and dying are mentioned in the Sacred 
Scriptures, in their true internal meaning for a genuine living church, 
they relate to the souls of men, and represent some condition of the church 
among human beings. But let no one misunderstand this remark. To 
avoid this, we now most distinctly say, that the body of man literally 
dies; and, in the historical sense of Scripture, which is its literal sense, 
in many places, and in strict historical truth, this death of persons is 
related. But all such accounts, while they may be true as to the bodies 
of men in the sense of the letter, represent, at the same time, states of 
their souls, and certain conditions of the church, as treated of in the 
Word's spiritual sense. And it may now be laid down, as a uniform 
law throughout the whole Word, that the historical account of the na- 
tural death of persons, or of persons dying naturally, is given in the 
Word of God for the sake of its spiritual meaning. 

The expressions death, to die, or dying, may be variously applied. 
But, perhaps, the best definition that can be given to them, and one 



112 BERMU-N'S. 

that will include all others, is, that they signify, that a person or thing 
undergoes a process, in which he, she or it ceases to be such as he, she 
or it was before. This meaning is applicable to both souHand body ; 
for, when their separation takes place, the relation ceases to be what it 
was before dissolution. 

Now endeavor to keep in mind the true meaning of death and dy- 
ing, that is, a thing's ceasing to be what it was before, and that, in the 
Scriptures, this is principally and essentially applied to the soul and 
the church, and not to the material body, while we examine some pas- 
sages of the Word in this light. G-o we then to the Bible, and let us 
see what is the nature of its teaching on this subject. 

In the second chapter of Genesis, Adam was told, "Of every tree of 
the garden, thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for, in the day that thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die." "VVe take this as a starting point on 
this subject, in order to show the true scriptural meaning of death, that 
from it the true scriptural meaning of resurrection may be drawn. 
We will, therefore, give a short explanation of this passage in reference 
to Adam. 

Was then this spoken to him of his soul, or of his body? It could 
not have been in reference to his body; because the same account tells 
us that he did eat; whereas his natural body did not literally die in 
the natural idea of its time of death : for it is said, "All the days that 
Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died." The 
true meaning of this can be known only by learning what is spiritually 
signified by Adam. In a general sense, by Adam, the most ancient 
church is meant. In an individual sense, this term signifies true faith 
in the Lord, grounded in love to him. For such a state constitutes a 
true man; while, in the original, the term Adam signifies man. 

In order to explain the passage, we observe, that to eat signifies to 
appropriate to life. Spiritually, it is for man to learn, know, perceive 
and love what is good and true from the Lord, by means of what has 
been revealed to him in the Divine Word. This is true order. But 
spiritual and heavenly things are not discoverable to man by means of 
mere natural science. 

Now to eat of the tree of the science (knowledge) of good and evil, 
is to attempt to become spiritually wise from the principle of self and 
by the light of the world; or "to inquire into the mysteries of faith 
by what appertains to sense and science." The state of mind in which 
man attempts to do this, is denoted by "the day" in which Adam, in 
the true sense, eats the forbidden fruit; for, by any portion of natural 



SERMON III. 113 

time, in the Word, state is signified. The effect of this kind of eating 
is, that the celestial things of love and the spiritual things of faith pe- 
rish — they die. This is so, because these heavenly principles can 
truly exist with man, only by his acknowledging their Divine Source. 
When he does not do this, they cease to he in the mind's view — in the 
understanding and will — what they were before. They cease to exert 
their blessed influence upon the soul's affections as they did before. 
In this case, they are said to die. Therefore, to have these principles 
restored to man, and for him to be brought under their living influence, 
to live in them, by them, and from them, in acknowledgment of the 
Lord, is his spiritual resurrection. 

The first instruction, then, contained in Written Revelation, con- 
cerning death, relates to a state of the soul, and not of the body. 
Consequently, as resurrection is for the dead, it too relates to the soul, 
and not to the body. And this scriptural resurrection of the soul is 
effected by the work of regeneration. This principle runs through the 
whole Word. Therefore, every person mentioned in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures, signifies some state, condition, doctrine, or principle of the church. 
Hence, when his death is mentioned, it means that such state, doctrine, 
or principle ceased to be in the church what it was before. 

The case of Enoch, however, is somewhat different. For it is not 
said that he died, but that he "walked with G-od; and was not; for 
G-od took him.' 7 "To walk with God" is "to teach and live accord- 
ing to the doctrine of faith;" that is, to do so by means of truth in 
the understanding. This doctrine was signified by Enoch. Now, if 
this means of man's spiritual life were taken away from him, he would 
utterly and eternally perish. But the Lord provides that man's under- 
standing of truth shall be preserved, and the doctrine of truth for it. 
Hence Enoch was said to be taken of God, by which is signified, that 
"the doctrine of truth was preserved by the Lord for the use of 
posterity." 

Death, or to die, then, in the Scriptures, essentially implies some 
change which takes place in regard to the souls of men, and not to their 
bodies. Therefore, as to die means to cease to be of a former quality, 
for the soul to die, in the sense of perishing, is for it to cease to be of 
a heavenly quality as a recipient of the Lord's truth and love : it is for 
man to cease thinking about the divine truths of the Word, and to 
quit living according to them. 

Truly to live, then, that is, to live in a spiritual sense, is to think, 
will, love and do just what the Lord in his Word requires to be thought, 
willed, loved and done. To do otherwise from purpose, is spiritual 



114 SERMONS. 

death. Hence, when life and death are spoken of in the Scriptures, 
they are both alike mentioned in reference to the soul, and not to the 
body. 

Deut., xxx, 19 : "I call heaven and earth to record this day against 
you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. 
Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." Now, 
if life here related to the body and not to the soul, then all that these 
people need to have done, in order to have retained bodily life to them- 
selves and posterity, would have been simply to have made such a 
choice. 

In Ezekiel it is said, "uhe soul that sinneth shall die." And the 
Lord says, "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth," and 
admonishes the house of Israel to turn and live. But, in Rev., xiv, 13, 
it is said, " Write, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from 
henceforth," &c. This apparent difference of teaching in relation to 
the dead, shows the importance of having true doctrines and a rational 
view of the Word. The meaning given to the term death, and its ap- 
plication to the soul, are the only means of reconciling these passages. 
To die, in Ezekiel, means to cease loving the Lord, and to incline to 
the evil love of self; but, in Revelations, it means to cease loving evil 
and to incline to the Lord, and to die unto sin, which is dying in the 
Lord. 

Thus, in the idea of death and resurrection, regeneration and salva- 
tion are always involved. At natural death, the material body is re- 
jected, while the soul, in a spiritual body, is raised into the life of the 
spiritual world. So, in regeneration, the evils of life, the former con- 
versation of the "old man, which is corrupt," is put off, rejected, and 
" the new man put on, which, after G-od, is created in righteousness 
and true holiness." (Eph., iv, 22-24.) This is true spiritual resur- 
rection to heavenly life in the soul, which is salvation. This spiritual 
change in man's character is what the Scriptures teach in the lauguage 
of death and life, or resurrection, regeneration and salvation. Paul 
says, (I Cor., xv, 31,) "I protest, by your rejoicing, which I have in 
Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." 

John, v, 24: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my 
word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." 
This resurrection to life must be the regeneration of the soul to a state 
of heavenly truth and love, and not the reanimation of the dead body. 

John, iii, 14 : " We know that we have passed from death unto life, 
because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth 



SERMON III. 115 

in death." John, viii, 51, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man 
keep my sayings, he shall never see death." Is not this deliverance 
from death most manifestly that regeneration which is, as we maintain, 
resurrection? Again, Paul says to the Komans, (viii, 6,) "For to be 
carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." 
And, (vi, 7-11,) "For he that is dead is freed from sin." Certainly 
the Apostle did not say this in respect to the death of the body; for 
he explains himself by saying, "Now if we be dead with Christ, we be- 
lieve that we shall also live with him : knowing that, Christ, being 
raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over 
him : for, in that he died, he died unto sin once; but, in that he liveth, 
he liveth unto God." Mark, here, that Christ is said to die unto sin; 
to show indisputably the nature of the death he died, and which the 
Apostle evidently inculcates we too are to die, namely, that ceasing of 
our souls to be such as they were before as to their sinful quality, in 
order that we too may live unto God, as he did, or as another apostle 
expresses it, may become "righteous as he was righteous." For Paul 
said this of the Lord's humanity in its glorifying process. The death 
he died in this process, was that change which he wrought in his hu- 
manity whereby he put off from it all the infirmity of that hereditary 
corruption which he had inherited in it from the mother, Mary; and 
this process of exinanition was his rising from the dead : while his liv- 
ing unto God, was that thorough impletion of his humanity with the 
divine goodness of the divine love, which he effected by its most inti- 
mate conformity with the divine truth of the divine wisdom. This was 
glorification of human nature in the Lord by uniting it with the divine 
nature in him. And man must follow the Lord in the regeneration. 
Therefore, the Apostle adds, "Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be 
dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." 

In II Timothy, i, 10, the Apostle, speaking of his holy calling in 
Christ Jesus, says, "But is now made manifest by the appearing of our 
Saviour, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life 
and immortality to light in the gospel." Now the death abolished 
could not be the death of the material body, because that still continues 
to die; but it was the removal of the powers of darkness from man, 
under whose deadly influence he was held captive. 

So we conclude, that the proper scriptural meaning of death and life, 
in the Word of God, is strictly applicable to the souls of men, and not 
to their bodies; and, therefore, that a scriptural resurrection belongs to 
the souls of men, and not to their material bodies. 



116 SERMONS. 

Thirdly. The graves out of which the dead are said to be raised. 
On this point, only a few words will be said. 

The grave, literally, is the place where the dead body is deposited. 
In it, a twofold idea is involved — both rejection and resurrection. Re- 
jection, because the body, which the soul rejects, is consigned to it, and 
resurrection, because the soul itself enters into the life of eternity. 
It also signifies regeneration; because the putting off of the dead body 
represents the putting off of evils, by shunning them as sins against 
God; and the soul's entrance into the life of eternity represents man's 
putting on, in his affections and thoughts, the Lord's truth and love. 
Hence grave and burying have this twofold meaning. 

But, as, in the Holy Word, places signify states, the literal place of 
the grave, as a place containing the dead body, signifies an evil state, 
such as the Apostle alludes to, where he says, "To be carnally minded 
is death," and speaks of being "dead in trespass and sin." In this 
sense, it means hell, in reference to this condition in the spiritual 
world. 

In the Old Testament, and in the Psalms generally, the word that 
is translated, in our version of the Scriptures, grave, is, in the Hebrew 
language, "sheol" which precisely answers to the Greek word "hades." 
Their literal meaning is simply "the abode of the dead." And Mr. 
Clowes tells us, that this was its " original meaning in the English 
language." Thus, in Ps. lxxxviii, 3, "For my soul is full of troubles; 
and my life draweth nigh unto the grave:" that is, "sheol" — "my 
life draweth nigh unto hell." The grave, then, as the abode of the 
dead in general, covers the whole ground of all degrees and conditions 
of the unregenerate state of man. Man, in a merely natural state of 
the mind, because he is in a state of death as to spiritual light and af- 
fection, is in this case in a grave. But, when awakened by the voice 
of truth, aud brought to live the life of faith and charity, this grave is 
opened, and the regenerating soul is set free from its natural con- 
finement. So the natural body is as a grave to the soul, while living 
on earth. But, when separated by the casting off of the body, it comes 
out of its grave, and enters the life of eternity. When the church in 
general is in a natural state of doctrines, and thoughts in consequence 
of such doctrines, which is the case at the close of one dispensation and 
the commencement of a new one, as at the end of the Jewish economy, 
the people are represented as being dead and in graves. Some may be 
and are in good affections, and are willing to embrace the truth, while 
others reject it. This the Lord teaches in John, v, 28, 29: "Marvel 
not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the 



v SERMON III. 117 

graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done 
good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the 
resurrection of damnation." This also treats of the judgment effected. 

Such is the general meaning of grave, and being raised out of it. 

Now in reference to our text again. Lazarus represented the gen- 
tile world, who had not the Word, but among whom the church was 
to be. But, in this state, they were not spiritual, heavenly men. They 
needed the divine truths of the Lord to render them such. The state, 
however, in which they were, was represented by Lazarus sickening, 
dying and being put in the grave. He was placed in the grave for the 
sake of correspondence, and was raised out of it to represent their re- 
generation — the rejection of evils and falses and reception of truth and 
love, and spiritual life thereby. 

We conclude the whole subject, at this time, by adding a very few 
more remarks. 

In an enlightened sense, and in proper spiritual discernment, when 
we speak of man in reference to his resurrection-life in the spiritual 
world, we no more speak of his material corporeal body, than when, in 
natural language, and in speaking of his body, we mean thereby the 
clothes he wears. In fact, what, in common discourse, in reference to 
man, is called death, is, in spiritual light, understood as only undress- 
ing him for the life of the spiritual world. It is only carrying him, 
through a short, but often dreaded journey, to his everlasting home. 
When he ceases to be dead in trespass and in sin by a life of charity 
and faith, and thus awakes to a life of righteousness, his soul tastes 
something of the sweets of a spiritual resurrection, which is introduc- 
tory to salvation and eternal life. This, beloved, is the first and essen- 
tial resurrection : and, in this view, the death of the body, is only the 
taking a short journey to the land of the living. He who comes into 
this state of heavenly life, then experiences the heart-cheering and 
soul-thrilling truth, " Blessed and holy is he who hath part in the first 
resurrection. Over these, the second death hath no power." Amen. 



15 



118 SERMONS. 



SERMON IV. 

SECOND ON THE RESURRECTION. 

Angels live without material bodies. 

f#eto, xxii, 31, BZ 

"But, as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that 
which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of 
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God 
is not the God of the dead, but of the living" 

These are the Lord's own words, and have direct reference to the 
subject of the resurrection; to which we ask your further attention 
to-day. They are divinely true. And, as we remarked in our previ- 
ous discourse, in reference to the passage from John, xi, 23 to 26, 
which treats of the resurrection of Lazarus, so we say now, that, as the 
topic of discourse with the Lord was that of the resurrection, it cer- 
tainly furnishes the most suitable occasion for imparting the correct 
doctrine on that subject. If we can understand aright his instruction 
in this place, we will have the true doctrine of the Scriptures on the 
resurrection in all places. 

In our previous discourse on this point of doctrine, we endeavored to 
show: First, That the doctrine of the resurrection of the material body 
is merely a natural or mistaken idea, not the spiritual and correct doc- 
trine which the Lord imparts; — seeondty, The scriptural meaning of life 
and death; — thirdly, What the graves are, out of which the dead are 
said to be raised. 

In our present discourse, we propose to pursue the subject, First; by 
examining some of the passages, both in the Old Testament aud in the 
New, supposed to teach the resurrection of the material bodies of men. 
(We say some, because it would consume too much time to consider 



SERMON IV. 119 

them all.) Secondly, The examples of the dead literally raised. 
Thirdly, Evidences from Scripture of persons living in the spiritual world, 
in proof that the soul is in form a man, and its entrance into the spi- 
ritual world the true personal resurrection. Fourthly, The doctrine 
of the text. Fifthly and lastly, The Lord's resurrection. 

First: Job, xix, 26, 27 — "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth • and though 
after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see 
God : whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and 
not another, though my reins be consumed within ine." 

Upon this it may be remarked, that any one, who will read the book 
of Job with even tolerable attention, will see, that this passage, proper- 
ly understood, is by no means applicable to the resurrection of the ma- 
terial body. First, because Job is only speaking here of the state of 
his extreme affliction, declaring, at the same time, his entire confidence 
that he would eventually be delivered by the Lord's interposition. It 
has, therefore, no reference to a future resurrection in the end of time, 
but only that he would not, under that affliction, severe as it was, even 
die the common natural death of the body, but would recover from it. 
He was smitten "with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his 
crown." (ii, 7.) He only "escaped with the skin of his teeth." Se- 
condly, because his confidence was realized in the life of his natural 
body. "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed 
for his friends : also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 
. . . So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his be- 
ginning; for he had 14.000 sheep, and 6.000 camels, and 1.000 yoke 
of oxen, and 1.000 she-asses." (xlii, 10-12.) The patient man de- 
clares, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine 
eye seeth thee;" which is the confidence expressed in the nineteenth 
chapter, twenty-seventh verse, already quoted. Consequently, the doc- 
trine of the resurrection of the material bodies of all men cannot be 
drawn from this passage in Job. 

Dan., xii, 2: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the 
earth, shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and 
everlasting contempt." Whatever may be the true meaning of this 
passage, it cannot, with any propriety, be taken to prove a general re- 
surrection of dead bodies at the end of natural time. For, if sleeping 
in the dust be taken literally, so must the term many be. And this 
fact would prevent this passage from teaching the common doctrine 
of the resurrection, because it is believed that all will be raised. All 
may be many, but many is not necessarily all, and many of cannot be 



120 SERMONS. 

all, for some are excepted. Mr. Noble says, "Dr. Hody, who was so 
anxious to find evidence for the resurrection of the body, that he often 
adduces such as is extremely equivocal, nevertheless considers that this 
passage of Daniel is best referred to the restoration of the Jews, or of 
the church, being excluded from reference to a general resurrection, by 
the introduction of the word many ; and his arguments are well worth 
notice. <I most freely acknowledge/ says he, ' that the word many 
makes this text extremely difficult. I know what expositors say; 
but I am not satisfied, with any thing that I have hitherto met with. 
Some tell us that many is sometimes used in the Scriptures to signify 
all; but this does not clear the difficulty. For there is a great differ- 
ence between many and many of All they that sleep in the dust are 
many; but many of them that sleep in the dust, cannot be said to be 
all they that sleep in the dust. Many of does plainly except some. 
Being still, however, reluctant to give up this passage as a proof of 
his favorite sentiment, Dr. Hody acknowledges, that, as the text could 
not be accommodated to the doctrine, he was once disposed to accommo- 
date the doctrine to the text. 'I was once/ says he, ' inclined to be- 
lieve, and the fancy was grounded upon this text, that there may be 
some who shall not be raised up at all at the last day : and who were 
they, think you, who I thought were not to rise ? such heathen as lived 
morally well, and according to the light that is given them. I was 
loth to rank them among the miserable; and I could not see how they 
could be saved. I was willing, therefore, to believe that there might 
be some middle way contrived by Providence; and that was annihila- 
tion." (Appeal, p. 45.) 

But, in the light of the new church, this passage teaches, in its in- 
ternal sense, doctrine concerning the souls of men and respecting their 
material bodies. To sleep, and sleep in the dust, in the spiritual sense, 
means to be in a merely natural and sensual state of life — especially 
at the close of one dispensation and the beginning of another; as at 
the end of the Jewish and the introduction of the christian; and now, 
again, at the commencement of the new christian church. And it 
shows the effect of the fresh manifestations of truth flowing in upon a 
spiritually sleeping world. To be asleep, is to be in a state of obscurity 
as to truths : therefore, to be awake, is to be instructed in spiritual 
truths. The result is, that the good receive and come into heavenly 
life, while the evil are only affected "with shame and contempt." 
Wherefore, the Apostle says, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise 
from the dead; and Christ shall give thee light." (Eph., v, 14.) 
Here he is certainly not addressing the dead carcases of men ; for he 



SERMON IV. 121 

adds, "See, then, that ye walk circumspectly; not as fools, but as 
wise." 

Ezekiel, xxxvii, is "the vision of the valley of dry bones." This, 
in its literal sense, is prophetic of the deliverance of the children of 
Israel from a captivity in which they then were. In its spiritual 
sense, it is representative of man's regeneration. Just mark one fea- 
ture of the prophecy. After bone came to bone, sinews and flesh upon 
them, and they were covered with skin, still there was no breath in 
them. It is then said, " Prophesy unto the winds; prophesy, son of 
man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord G-od, Come from the 
four winds, breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may 
live." (v. 9.) Was this breath breathed upon these slain, the old 
souls, brought back from their long dwelling in the presence of the 
Saviour, or relapsed from their dark abodes in hell, to re-enter their 
remodelled carcases of worm-eaten flesh and sun-dried bones, to make 
them human beings again ? Is such even the intimation ? That it 
does not mean the general resurrection of the dead bodies of all men, 
is clearly evident from the declaration of the eleventh verse : " Then 
he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Is- 
rael : behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost : we 
are cut off for our parts." 

In the spiritual sense, in reference to man's regeneration, bones de- 
note his state as to intellectual things without much life. Receiving 
sinews upon them, signifies a reception of spiritual truths j and gifting 
them with flesh, signifies the endowing them with the will and life of 
good. Skin signifies the ultimates of new life. 

We come now to the New Testament. And, in order to reach the 
point at once, attention is directed to the fifteenth chapter of First 
Corinthians; in regard to which, but little need be said, because it 
teaches so distinctly the new-church doctrine of the resurrection of the 
spiritual body, and not that of the natural body. 

The great error into which men have fallen here, is, that of having 
lost sight of the main subject of the Apostle's remarks, which is sim- 
ply man's future existence. This the Sadducees denied, while the 
Pharisees admitted it. Paul refers to this doctrine of that Jewish sect 
mentioned in Acts, xxiii, 8: "For the Sadducees say there is no re- 
surrection (anastasis)', neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees 
confess both," by saying, "How say some among you that there is no 
resurrection of the dead." 

The doctrine, then, of a future existence, involved in the Greek 
"anastasis" is that which the Apostle is discussing, defending and 



122 SERMONS. 

enforcing in this chapter, and not that of a resurrection of the material 
body. 

As proof of this, we refer, for authority, to Dr. Dwight, formerly 
professor of divinity in Yale College. "In his sermon on the resur- 
rection," says Mr. Noble, "after observing that the subject treated of 
by Paul, in I Cor., xv, is the anastasis, or future existence of man, 
Dr. Dwight proceeds thus : ' This word is commonly, but often errone- 
ously, rendered resurrection. So far as I have observed, it usually de- 
notes our existence beyond the grave. Its original and literal meaning 
is, to stand up, or stand again.' " "Its strictly literal meaning," 
says Mr. Noble, "is, to stand up; but not to stand again; which, in 
fact, is nonsense." (Appeal, p. 114.) 

We have thus the authority of Dr. Dwight for maintaining, that the 
word anastasis does not mean the resurrection of the body ; but that 
it does mean "our existence beyond the grave," and literally to " stand 
up." And this is what the Apostle is defending in this fifteenth of 
First Corinthians, in opposition to the doctrine of the Sadducees, who 
denied a future existence. 

Now with this correct meaning in the mind, how clear does the apos- 
tle's doctrine appear? He says, "But some will say, How are the 
dead raised up, and with what body do they come?" This question 
certainly covers the whole ground. But who are the dead, and who 
does the pronoun "they" personify? Suppose it personifies the dead 
bodies, and we read the passage thus, using the noun instead of the 
pronoun : " How are the dead raised up, and with what body do the 
dead bodies come?" How ridiculous! 

But Paul goes on to say, "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not 
quickened, except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not 
that body which shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or 
of some other grain." This itself might seem sufficient! Can any 
doctrine against the resurrection of the material body be more distinct- 
ly expressed? 

But, reasoning on in favor of a future life, and not of the resurrec- 
tion of the natural bod}' - , he says, "It is sown a natural body, it is 
raised a spiritual body." Not, it is now a natural, and will at the last 
day be raised a spiritual, body. No : Paul does not say so. He speaks 
of it as the present condition of man. Or, perhaps, according to a 
more literal and correct rendering of that passage, he says, "A natu- 
ral body is sown, a spiritual body is raised." " There is a natural 
body, and there is a spiritual body." 

The Apostle then goes on to say, "Now this I say, brethren, that 



SERMON III. 123 

flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." He speaks of a 
sudden change, which he calls a mystery ; but, in all that he says, 
there is not a single word leading towards the idea, that old, decayed, 
worm-eaten, natural bodies are to be brought to life, and made into spi- 
ritual, heavenly ones. 

The moment of man's natural death is a sudden or quick, in the 
sense of a sure, inevitable, and to him altogether unforeseen, event of 
change. Besides, in the Scriptures, in the expressions of natural time, 
the idea of its state and its certainty is involved. In Rev., xxii, 12, 
it is written, " Behold, I come quickly." This means that the Lord 
will come certainly- but does not involve the mere natural idea of his 
personal coming in the speedy lapse of natural time. Our souls can be 
changed as to state by regeneration, as well as our bodies can be 
changed as to place and as to particles of matter. And this purification 
of mind, is sometimes represented by the use of the term body; as in 
Phil., iii, 20, 21: a For our conversation is in heaven; from whence 
also we look for the Saviour. . . . Who shall change our vile 
body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according 
to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to him- 
self." Connect this with Ephesians, iv, 22, "That ye put off, con- 
cerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, accord- 
ing to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your minds; 
and that ye put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righ- 
teousness and true holiness." This change is what is meant by chang- 
ing our vile bodies. The same spiritual idea of purification, is taught 
in another place, (Col., ii, 11,) "In whom also ye are circumcised with 
the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the 
sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Here we must leave 
our first point. 

Secondly, Examples of the dead literally raised. Under this head of 
our subject, our time will allow us only to refer to the cases of Laza- 
rus, — considered in our previous discourse, — the widow's son of the 
city of Nain, (Luke, vii, 11,) and the Shunamite's child, (II Kings, iv, 
12,) and to remark that these were not raised into heaven as to their 
material bodies, nor relieved from natural death thereafter; and that 
this applies also to what Paul says, in Heb., xi, 35, of so many things 
being done by faith — "Women received their dead raised to life again; 
and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might 
obtain a better resurrection [anastaseos, future existence]." 

From these examples, therefore, no proof can be drawn in favor of a 
bodily resurrection at the end of natural time. 



124 SERMONS. 

Thirdly, Evidences from Scripture of persons living in the spiritual 
world, in proof that the soul is in form a man, and that its entrance 
into the spiritual world is the true personal resurrection. 

That men are living men in the spiritual world, and in spiritual 
bodies, appears from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke, 
xvi, 22. It is true it is a parable; but the Lord would not teach 
tfalse ideas in the representations of a parable. 

Rev., vii, 9 : What does John declare he saw, after the sealing of 
the twelve tribes of Israel? He says, " After this, I beheld, and lo, 
a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kin- 
dreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before 
the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands." John 
saw this in the spiritual world, and is it not true? "They stood, were 
clothed, and had palms in their hands." 

Again, Rev., vi, 9 : " And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw, 
nnder the altar, the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, 
and for the testimony which they held, &c. And white robes were 
given them." Here souls were seen by John. 

Also, Rev., xxii : When John fell down to worship before the feet 
of the angel, he was told not to do it; but to worship God. The rea- 
son the angel assigned was, " For I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy 
brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this 
book." It is often said that spirits assume human form, when they 
are seen by men, merely for the purpose of getting rid of the true doc- 
trine of man's future existence, in a spiritual body, in human form, 
immediately after the death of the material body ; but such a subter- 
fuge, the Scriptures do not warrant. At the transfiguration of the 
Lord, two men appeared, who were Moses and Elias, in glory. Moses 
is here seen to be a living man; and was not his material body "buried 
in a valley in the land of Moab." He and Elias are "both living men. 
And this brings us, Fourthly, to the doctrine of the text. 

Resurrection here is " anastasis," which, according to Dr. Dwight, 
means our "existence beyond the grave." And how beautifully does 
the passage itself show this ! The Saviour says, in this very contro- 
versy about the resurrection (anastasis), "I am the God of Abraham, 
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ? God is not the God of 
the dead, but of the living." And were not the bodies of these per- 
sons dead? and does not God declare that he is not the God of the 
dead, but of the living? Yet he declares himself to be the God of 
these very persons. This we will explain presently. Besides, this 
was the answer given to the Sadducccs, "who say that there is no re- 



SERMON IV. 225 

surrection (anastasis)" "neither angel n or spirit." The object, then, 
on their part, does not seem to have been to elicit any thing concern- 
ing the resurrection of the body, because they not only denied that, 
but also that of the spirit too. Hence, neither in the question nor in 
the answer is there any thing said about dead bodies. This passage, 
therefore, proves the very kind of resurrection for which the new church 
contends; because these persons were dead as to their earthly bodies, 
but alive in their true spiritual bodies, and heavenly alive in faith and 
love. 

This may be seen very clearly, by taking the parallel passage in Luke, 
xx, 35-38. There it is said, "But they which shall be accounted 
worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, nei- 
ther marry nor are given in marriage ; neither can they die any more ; 
for they are equal unto the angels j and are the children of God, being 
the children of the resurrection.' ' Here it speaks of those who shall 
be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection of the 
dead, evidently implying that there are those who are not so accounted. 
This itself is sufficient to prove that it can have no reference to the 
general resurrection of dead bodies in the last day of natural time. 

It is said here, that those who are "accounted worthy to obtain that 
world, and the resurrection from the dead, cannot die any more, are 
equal to the angels, the children of God, being the children of the resur- 
rection; " which shows that regeneration, and entrance into life eternal, 
are essentially involved. How else could they be said to be equal to 
the angels, &c. ? Do people believe that angels are any thing ? Do they 
need to have bodies made out of the elements of earth, at some future 
day, into which they must enter, in order to complete their happiness ? 
If not, why is it necessary for the "spirits of just men made perfect. ,, 
(Heb., xii, 23.) It cannot be. Connect the teachings of this passage, 
from Luke, with the instruction to Martha in John, xi, 25, explained 
in a previous discourse, in these words, " Jesus said unto her, I am the 
resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, 
shall never die;" and how plainly are regeneration and the soul's en- 
trance into eternal life taught? 

But let us return to the text a moment, and consider its spiritual 
teaching. How is it that God is said to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob, who were dead as to their earthly bodies, and yet that he 
is not the God of the dead but of the living? How can this be accord- 
ing to the common idea of death and resurrection, as applied to the 
body? And would it not be a gloomy thought, in the loss of dear 

16 



126 SERMONS. " 

friends, to give it this literal application, that they ceased to be God's 
at that trying time, when their bodies are consigned to the tomb? 
But how different does it appear in the heavenly light of the New Je- 
rusalem ? No such gloom hangs around it. 

To understand the passage, we must view it spiritually. Whatever 
is supremely loved by any one, may be said to be that person's god — 
gold, honor, or self. He that is "dead in trespass and in sin," or is 
" carnally minded," which the Apostle tells us is death, does not love 
the Lord Jesus Christ truly, and therefore it may be said, that the 
Lord is not his God. This is the sense in which God is not the God 
of the dead. But Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob represent all regenerate 
persons, who have passed from death unto life, because they love the 
brethren — who live and believe in the Lord, and "shall never die." 
They correspond to the three heavens of which Paul speaks. Hence, 
by them, are to be understood all that are in the many mansions of our 
Heavenly Father's house — Abraham the third heaven, Isaac the mid- 
dle heaven, and Jacob the lowest heaven. All who are in any of these 
degrees of regenerate heavenly life, love the Lord and keep his com- 
mandments. God is truly their God, because they love him and obey 
his voice. Their affections are placed upon him. And this is the 
sense in which God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; because 
those three persons signified all, in all degrees and in all times, who 
become regenerated and fitted for heaven ; notwithstanding their mate- 
rial bodies, as to the matter of them, may have "returned to the dust 
as they were," or have been dead and buried. 

Fifthly and lastly, The Lord's resurrection. 

In Psalm xvi, 10, it is written, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in 
hell (the grave) ; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see cor- 
ruption." This is spoken of the Lord in reference to the assumption 
and glorification of humanity. It has, therefore, no reference what- 
ever to the resurrection of the dead material bodies of men in general ; 
because their bodies do see corruption. Peter makes this application 
to the Lord, (Acts, ii, 25-31,) and says, "He, seeing this before, 
spake of the resurrection of Christ, That his soul was not left in hell ; 
neither did his flesh see corruption." But this resurrection, or "ana- 
stasis" this standing up, or living beyond the grave, refers to the glo- 
rification, or deifying, of the Lord's humanity. This was a progres- 
sive work with the Lord. Hence it is written, in John, xii, 28, "Fa- 
ther, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, 
I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." And in John, 
xvii, 4, "Oh, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the 



SERMON IV. 127 

glory which I had with thee before the world was." Thus he by de- 
grees put off materiality; and, in its stead, put on divinity from with- 
in, — which divinity was the Father, — until he reached the tomb; and 
in that were dissipated the last remnants of natural materiality. 

But what idea do we attach to the Lord's flesh? Certainly not now 
the material flesh common to the natural bodies of all men. Our Sa- 
viour says, in John, vi, 51, "I am the living bread, which came down 
from heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." — 
See John, xi, 25, 26, for what he said to Martha about believing in 
him and never dying. — "And the bread that I will give, is my flesh, 
which I will give for the life of the world." And again : " Except ye 
eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in 
you." In Matt., xxvi, 26, it is written, "And, as they were eating, 
Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to the disciples, 
and said, Take, eat, this is my body." If now we connect these teach- 
ings together, how beautiful is the doctrine derived from them ! 

The Lord calls himself the living bread coming down from heaven; 
and the bread that he gives is his flesh, and also his body. Can it be 
the ordinary material flesh common to all men ? It is the good of his 
divine love in the deified humanity, the glorified body of the Lord. 
This kind of substance, to which the Lord here refers, is the essential 
property of the kind of body in which our Saviour rose. This is what 
the Psalmist refers to, when he says, "Thou wilt not leave my soul 
in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." 
But to take the Lord's resurrection literally, as a proof of the resurrec- 
tion of man's material body, requires, in order to preserve the analogy 
throughout, that it should take place on the third day. 

In conclusion, we remark, that, as "the Lord's thoughts are not our 
thoughts, nor his ways our ways," neither does his passage through the 
tomb show forth the resurrection of our material bodies. It does, 
however, most completely show forth our regeneration and salvation, 
and personally assures us, that, at death, we shall "stand up," in spi- 
ritual bodies, in the spiritual world. He passed through the tomb, 
for the sake of correspondence in the Word, that it might be written 
throughout agreeably to that divine law. It represented, in act, in life, 
what took place in divine will and thought. For burial signifies rejec- 
tion and life, or salvation. Rejecting the body signifies the putting 
off of evil, and raising to life, the reception of good. With regard to 
the Lord, it represented the process of the glorification of the humanity, 
in consequence of which his body became divine. He had by degrees 
rejected the elements of this world, until his body was so far essentially 



128 SERMONS. 

divine, that it became entirely so in its passage through the tomb. It 
had put off matter, and infirmity, and put on divinity in its place. It 
had, in this process, come down from heaven as Divinity Itself, and 
displaced the infirmities of our nature, and therefore was a divine body. 
In view of this truth, it is said, in John, iii, 13, "No man hath ascend- 
ed up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of 
Man which is in heaven." And, in Eph., iv, 9, 10, "Now that he 
ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lowest 
parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended 
up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things." 

So we conclude, as to the fact itself: whether we can comprehend, 
or not, the nature of the change that took place in the tomb, or how 
much materiality still adhered to the divine body of the Lord, at the 
time of its entrance therein, we confidently conclude, that the body of 
the Lord which ascended was the Divinity that first descended; and 
was not, therefore, formed out of the beggarly elements of materiality. 
Amen. 



Note. — Mr. Locke, "In his Third Letter to the Bishop of Worcester, 
cited also in the Note at the end of the Chapter on Identity and Diversity, 
in his Essay on the Human Understanding 1 , says: 'The resurrection of the 
dead I acknowledge to be an article of the christian faith: but that the re- 
surrection of the same body, in your lordship's sense of the same body, is 
an article of the christian faith, is, I confess, what I do not yet know. In 
the New Testament, (wherein, I think, are contained all the articles of the 
christian faith,) I find our Saviour and the Apostles to preach the resurrec- 
tion of the dead, and the resurrection from the dead, in many places; but I 
do not remember any place where the resurrection of the same body is so 
much as mentioned : nay, — which is very remarkable in the case, — I do 
not remember, in any place of the New Testament, (where the general re- 
surrection of the last day is spoken of,) any such expression as the resur- 
rection of the body, much less of the same body.* 

"After a few more powerful remarks, he says: 'I must not part with this 
article of the resurrection, without returning" my thanks to your lordship 
for making- me take notice of a fault in my Essay. When I wrote that 
book, / took it for granted, as I doubt not but many others have done, that 
the Scriptures had mentioned, in express terms, the resurrection of the 
body; but, upon the occasion your lordship has given me, in your last let- 
ter, to look a little more into what revelation has declared concerning" the 
resurrection, and, finding no such express words in Scripture, as that "the 
body shall rise, or be raised, or the resurrection of the body," I shall, in 



SERMON IV. 129 

the next edition of it, change these words of my book, " the dead bodies of 
men shall rise," into those of Scripture, "the dead shall rise." * 'Not 
that I question that the dead shall be raised with bodies ; but, in matters 
of revelation, I think it not only safest, but our duty, as far as any one de- 
livers it for revelation, to keep close to the words of Scripture; unless he 
will assume to himself the authority of one inspired, or make himself wiser 
than the Holy Spirit himself.' " — Noble's Appeal, p. 40. 



4 m • » > 



Angels live without bodies made out of the earth. 



130 SERMONS. 



SERMON V. 



ON THE LAST JUDGMENT. 



Ml), XXil, (3). 

"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this 

world be cast out." 

In several previous discourses, doctrines inseparably connected with 
the doctrine of a general judgment, have been considered; namely, 
the doctrines concerning the destruction of the earth and visible na- 
ture, the second personal coming of the Son of Man, and the resurrec- 
tion of dead bodies out of their graves. The subject of our present 
inquiry, is the general or last judgment; in regard to which we pro- 
pose to dwell chiefly upon the point, that it takes place in the spiritual 
and not in the natural world, and not so much upon the manner of its 
accomplishment. 

And here we may remark, that, if the attempts which have been made 
to establish the points already considered have been successful, then 
will the truth of the positions to be taken in our present discourse be 
more readily admitted, and more distinctly understood. 

We feel some hope at least that the positions laid down in relation 
to the earth, the second coming of Christ, and the resurrection, have 
in some measure been sustained. The admission of the truth of those 
doctrines will necessarily lead to a different apprehension of the doc- 
trine of the general judgment, from that which is generally entertained. 
For in fact, to establish either of the above doctrines in the light of the 
new church in the manner attempted, is to establish all the others con- 
nected with them, in the same light, and in a like manner. 

If the doctrine of the resurrection as discussed in two previous dis- 
courses be satisfactorily established, it will itself go far to sustain many 



SERMON V. 131 

other points of doctrine believed in the new church. It will go to 
show that the spiritual world is now, even at the present time, a world 
of grand and living realities. That it is a world of causes, while the 
natural world is a world of effects. That the spiritual world, though 
invisible to material bodily eyes in the light of the sun of the natural 
world, yet is inseparably present and within the world of outward na- 
ture. In a word, that the spiritual world is really present with men 
on earth, because the worlds are united to make one as the soul and 
body in man are united to make a living man; and that hence, at the 
death of the natural body, all persons enter at once upon their life in 
the spiritual world without having to pass through some immense dis- 
tance in the natural idea of space. And further, that, as the soul, the 
spiritual body, which is in every human being while on earth, is the 
real man, when it is raised out of the material body at death, it enters 
the spiritual world as a man, retaining the same conscious identity, the 
same will and understanding, with all their ruling thoughts, affections, 
and dispositions. That, therefore, the soul of a man in the spiritual 
world is still a man, and the soul of a woman is still a woman; and 
that the death of the material body does not destroy the identity, nor 
effect any change in the quality of the soul, as to its state of good or 
evil. 

This being the true condition of men as deducible from the doctrine 
of the resurrection, seen and understood in the light of the new church, 
as set forth in the examination of that subject, will it not at once lead 
our minds to the world in which the general as well as individual judg- 
ments take place ? Is it not in the spiritual world, on the souls of men, 
and not in the natural world, in their material bodies, brought to life 
again after having been mingled in the dust of their mother earth for 
thousands of years? And is not this view of the subject clearly inti- 
mated by the Apostle, if not admitted to be expressly declared, where 
he says, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this 
the judgment"? (Heb., ix, 27.) He does not here allude to the doc- 
trine of a bodily resurrection, to take place before the judgment. But 
we will not dwell upon this point here j for, if the resurrection into the 
spiritual world of the real man takes place at death, then it is clear 
that the general judgment must take place in the spiritual world, and 
not in the natural. 

The query may now arise in the mind of the hearer, as to what part 
of the spiritual world must be the scene of this mighty event. It can- 
not be rational to suppose that it takes place in the bright mansions of 
the blest; nor yet that it is transacted in the dark and gloomy caverns 



132 SERMONS. 

of the wretched. Where then is the place of its accomplishment? 
The true answer to this question will establish another doctrine of the 
new church, not generally admitted by the world, and, where admitted, 
most grossly abused, and misunderstood. We allude to the doctrine 
of an intermediate state in the spiritual world, a state between heaven 
and hell. 

In the further discussion of our present subject, then, we will — 
First, Very briefly glance at the existence of this intermediate state; 
Secondly, Adduce from the Word some predictions concerning the 

Lord's coming to judgment; 
Thirdly, Endeavor to show a fulfilment in the Lord's time, as men- 
tioned in the text, which will go to prove our doctrine, that the judg- 
ment takes place in the spiritual world; 
Fourthly and lastly, Connect and review the subjects of our several 
previous discourses. 
First, The intermediate state. 

We might remark here, that the fact itself of such a state and place, 
must be established in the rational mind by having the true doctrine 
of the resurrection understood: 1, because, at death, man enters the 
spiritual world as a man; 2, because, after death, there must be a judg- 
ment; 3, because that judgment must, therefore, take place in the spi- 
ritual world; and, 4, because it is unreasonable to suppose that it 
should take place either in heaven or in hell. 

But to set forth a fact is one thing, and to explain it is another. 
The most we expect to do at this time is, to let the fact be known, and 
to give some little evidence of its existence. 

The inquiry naturally arises, where do spirits go to before the judg- 
ment, if not to an intermediate state ? To send them either to heaven 
or to hell — is it not itself a judgment? 

According to the doctrines of the new church, the two phrases spi- 
ritual world and world of spirits are to be understood differently. By 
the phrase spiritual world is meant the entire expanse of future exist- 
ence — heaven, hell, and the region between them. But, by the phrase 
world of spirits is to be understood merely the region intermediate be- 
tween heaven and hell. 

In a spiritual sense and degree, state constitutes place: heavenly 
state, a heavenly place ; and a hellish state, a hellish place. This in- 
termediate region of the spiritual world, which we call the world of 
spirits, is, therefore, a state, and indeed the first state, of man on en- 
tering the spiritual world. It is the general receptacle of all at death, 
where they arc assembled immediately after their resurrection. Here 



SERMON V. 133 

all "are examined and prepared for their final abodes." This region 
of the spiritual world, then, is the place for the general judgment. 

Mr. Noble, in his Appeal, remarks on this subject: "The Roman 
Catholics, it is well known, hold a kind of intermediate state, which 
they call purgatory. This they feign to be a place of severe torment, 
designed for purifying the souls of the good from the defilements ad- 
hering to the fleshly nature; and in which, it is pretended, they are 
liable to remain for thousands of years, unless delivered through the 
efficacy of the prayers of the saints and the papal indulgences, which 
are purchased by the credulous for that purpose. 

"Upon a certain fact, has thus been founded an extravagant fiction: 
hence Protestants have, for the most part, rejected the doctrine of an 
immediate state altogether, discarding the truth along with the per- 
version. 

"As observed, by the accomplished Dr. T. Burnet, in his work 
1 On the State of the Dead,' ' The reformed divines, to avoid the ter- 
rors of purgatory, have entirely taken away the intermediate state; as 
we are too apt, in avoiding one folly, to run into another.' 'It is very 
well known/ he continues, ' that the Roman purgatory is adapted to 
the humors of the people and the gains of the priest : but why should 
these phantasms fright us away from the search of truth, and the opi- 
nions of the ancients, concerning the hitherto unfulfilled state of misery 
and happiness before the day of judgment?' 

"Why, indeed!" adds Mr. Noble, "when it is an unquestionable 
fact, that the belief of an intermediate state of departed spirits, and of 
a world appropriated to their reception, was universal among Christians 

. . . long before the Romish purgatory was ever thought of. 
Is it not, then, the extreme of rashness to abolish the belief of an inter- 
mediate state, because, under the reign of Romish corruption, it had 
been changed into purgatory? And is it not the extreme of injustice, 
to charge the illustrious Swedenborg, as some of his opponents have 
done, with reviving the Romish purgatory, because he restores the older 
christian and spiritual doctrine of an intermediate state?" (Appeal, 
page 149.) 

"That the early Christians entertained views to this effect, though 
mixed with some obscurity and error, is abundantly evident from the 
Greek and Latin Fathers — extracts of which are adduced by the learned 
Bishop Pearson, in the Notes to his 'Exposition of the Creed,' under 
the article 'He descended into hell.' (Ibid.) 

As we have not room to give them here, wc take the liberty of re- 

17 



134 SERMONS. 

ferring our hearers to Noble's Appeal, a work readily to be obtained, 
where a sufficient number of them may be seen. 

No doubt in former times, the literal meaning of the Hebrew word 
"sheol," and of the Greek word "hades," in their general sense, as be- 
ing the abode of the dead, were also applied to this condition of the 
human race, and thence to an intermediate region in the spiritual world, 
which is the first receptacle of man after death, and by the new church 
is termed the world of spirits, that is, of men's spirits. But we are not 
left entirely without the testimony of Scripture on this subject. 

I Peter, iii, 18, 19, speaks of Christ " being put to death in the flesh; 
but quickened by the spirit; by which also he went and preached unto 
the spirits in prison:" with which may be connected what John saw 
in the Revelations, (vi, 9, 10,) "And when he had opened the fifth 
seal, I saw, under the altar, the souls of them that were slain for the 
Word of Grod, and for the testimony which they held : and they cried 
with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou 
not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? And 
white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto 
them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow- 
servants, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should 
be fulfilled." "Where else could these be than in an intermediate 
state? They were in protection there by the Lord, until the time of 
the judgment; which protection was represented by their being under 
the altar. Altar denotes worship. See also Rev., xx, 4 and following. 

It is this region of the eternal world, where all nations are gathered 
before the Son of Man, when he comes in his glory; and where he se- 
parates them one from another, "as a shepherd divideth the sheep 
from the goats;" and where he shall "set the sheep on his right hand, 
but the goats on the left." (Matt., xxv, 31-33.) 

But here we leave this part of the subject, and pass to the second 
point; in which we propose to adduce from the Word some predictions 
concerning the Lord's coming to judgment. 

Psalm xcvi, 10-13: "Say among the nations, Jehovah rcigneth; 
yea, the world shall be established, it cannot be moved : he shall judge 
the people with rectitude. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth 
rejoice ; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field and 
all that is therein be joyful. Then shall the trees of the forest exult 
before Jehovah; for he cometh, for he comcth to judge the earth: he 
judgeth the world with justice, and the peoples with his truth." Here 
the Psalmist speaks distinctly of Jehovah coining to judge the earth, 
that is, the church. 



SERMON V. 135 

Isaiah, xiii, 9-13 : " Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both 
with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate : and he shall de- 
stroy the sinners out of it. For the stars of heaven, and the constel- 
lations thereof, shall not give their light : the sun shall be darkened 
in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 
And I will punish the world for [their] evil, and the wicked for their 
iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and 
will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more 
precious than fine gold ; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. 
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of 
her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his 
fierce anger." To what can this prophecy more fitly apply than to a 
general judgment upon the souls of men under the Old Testament dis- 
pensation, to take place when he should make his advent into the 
world ? And are not some of the very events referred to, those which 
it is commonly admitted will take place at the time, or near the day, 
of the general or last judgment? The events, namely, which are to be 
manifested in the sun, the moon, the stars, the heavens and the earth, 
and in that which is to happen to them. And does not the Word 
speak of horrid punishments then to be inflicted? 

Also in Joel, ii, 28-31 : "And it shall come to pass afterward, that 
I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daugh- 
ters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams; your young 
men shall see visions : and also upon the servants, and upon the hand- 
maids, in those days, will I pour out my spirit. And I will show won- 
ders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of 
smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into 
blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. ,, Where 
things of a nature similar to those which it is generally supposed will 
take place in the time of a final judgment, are spoken of. 

The same remark applies to the prophecy of Malachi, iii, 1-6: "Be- 
hold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before 
me : and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, 
even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in : behold, he 
shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide the day of 
his coming ? and who shall stand, when he appeareth ? for he is like 
a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and 
purifier of silver : and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge 
them as gold and silver, that they may offer* unto the Lord an offering 
in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be 
pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. 



136 SERMONS. 

And I will come near to you in judgment : and I will be a swift wit- 
ness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false 
swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the 
widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger, and fear 
not me, saith the Lord of Hosts." 

And in the Fourth Chapter, Verses 1 and 2 : " For behold, the day 
cometh, that shall burn as an oven : and all the proud, yea, and all 
that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn 
them Up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root 
nor branch. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of Righ- 
teousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and 
grow up as calves of the stall." The prophet here speaks of certainly 
the most awful judgment, although that term is not applied. It is a 
total destruction of the wicked by the terrible process of burning. 

But let us see, in the third place, whether there is any evidence of 
a fulfilment of these prophetic teachings in the Lord's time. If there 
is, it will go to prove our doctrine, that it ?nust have taken place in the 
spiritual world; and that its effects must be experienced by men on 
earth. First, under this head, we will bring forward a few passages, 
directly to the point. 

John, v, 22 : "For the Father judge th no man; but hath committed 
all judgment unto the Son." The son, in the highest sense, is the 
Lord as to the divine humanity. 

"He who knows what, in the Lord, the Son of God signifies, and 
what, in him, the Son of Man signifies, can see many secrets of the 
Word: for the Lord sometimes calls himself the Son of God, and 
sometimes the Son of Man — always according to the subject treated of. 
When his divinity, his unity with the father, his divine power, faith in 
him, and life from him, are treated of, he then calls himself the Son, 
and the Son of God. . . . But where his passion, the judgment, 
his coming, and in general redemption, salvation, reformation, and re- 
generation, are treated of, he then calls himself the Son of Man : the 
reason is, because he is then understood as to the Word." (Doc. L. 22.) 
This distinction is pointed out and adduced, in order that the following 
passages may be understood ; for, without it, they must necessarily ap- 
pear contradictory. 

In John, xii, 46-48, it is written: "I am come a light into the 
world, that whosoever believeth on me, should not abide in darkness. 
And if any man hear my wprds, and believe not, I judge him not: for 
I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that reject- 
eth me, and receive th not my words, hath one that judge th him : the 



SERMON V. 137 

Word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." 
This Word is truth, and by that principle is judgment effected. 

But, in John, ix, 39, it is recorded: "And Jesus said, For judg- 
ment I am come into the world; that they which see not, might see; 
and that they which see, might be made blind." As divine love or 
good, he comes not to judge; but to save: but he comes also as the 
divine truth, which is the Word; and this is what effects judgment. 

That a judgment was accomplished by the Lord, when on earth, our 
text most explicitly declares: "Now is the judgment of this world; 
now shall the prince of this world be cast out." 

But let us trace out some indications at least, that the prophecies 
quoted, were fulfilled by the Lord, in accomplishing one general 
judgment. 

Isaiah speaks of the sun, moon, stars, heavens and earth, in a way 
commonly connected with the event of our present discourse. So does 
the prophet Joel; who likewise mentions fire and pillars of smoke in 
this connection. If now we turn to the Acts of the Apostles, we shall 
read, in the second chapter, fourteenth and following verses, as follows : 
"But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said 
unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all that dwell at Jerusalem, be this 
known unto you, and hearken to my words : for these are not drunken, 
as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is 
that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." The apostle then goes 
on to quote from the prophet, the passage which we have already given 
you. Visible nature remained unconsumed, although the same refe- 
rence was made to it by the prophet, as is generally done in connecting 
it with the idea of a judgment in the last day. But the prophecy was 
then in being fulfilled in the spiritual world, and its effects began to 
come out into the natural world among men, upon the day of pentecost. 

Next, in the passage from Malachi, the prophet speaks of the Lord's 
coming, and inquires, "Who may abide the day of his coming? and 
who shall stand when he appeareth?" And the reason assigned is, 
that "he shall sit as a refiner's fire and as fuller's soap." Do not these 
expressions most clearly indicate a judgment then to take place? How 
else can they be applied, as abiding, standing, tried, &c. ? Besides, it 
is distinctly said, "And I will come near you to judgment." And, in 
the fifth chapter, it speaks of the wicked being burned up. Is not this 
clearly a condition of judgment, when what is meant by burning is 
understood ? Burning is with fire. As shown on a previous occasion, 
fire, in the Scriptures, signifies love — heavenly fire, heavenly love ; but 
hell-fire, a hellish love, that is, a love of evil. This is what burns the 



138 SERMONS. 

wicked; and, when truth explores them in the other life, and they are 
found to be wholly immersed in the love of evil, they are subject to 
this burning, in this fire; that is, they are cast, or they cast themselves, 
into hell, which is the fire that shall never be quenched — " where their 
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (Mark, ix, 44, &c.) 

As an evidence of the fulfilment of Malachi, we will take Matt., iii, 
11, 12 — commencing with John the Baptist, as the fore-runner of the 
Saviour: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he 
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy 
to bear. He shall baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire: 
whose fan is in his hand ; and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and 
gather the wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with 
unquenchable fire." How much this sounds like what the prophet 
says: a All that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that com- 
eth, shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts." That day came, 
when the Lord came as prophesied by John. 

Quite similar is the teaching of the parable of the tares, (Matt., xiii, 
30, &c.) : "Let both grow together until the harvest; and, in the time 
of harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, 
and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my 
barn." This harvest is the end of the world, according to the thirty- 
ninth verse: "So shall it be in the end of the world." (Verse 40.) 
End of what world, or consummation of what age? Certainly not at 
the destruction of the visible universe. The Lord said unto his disci- 
ples, "In the world, ye shall have tribulation; but, be of good cheer, I 
have overcome the world." World here certainly does not refer to the 
material universe : for in what sense had he overcome that ? Had it 
rebelled? and had he conquered it? 

And the Lord said to his disciples, when he sent them forth to teach 
all nations, "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, or 
consummation of the age." Neither here does the phrase, end of the 
world, or consummation of the age, apply to any supposed end of the 
visible world of nature. 

And Paul says, in Heb., ix, 26: "But now, once in the end of the 
world, hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 
Nothing can be plainer, than that the term world, as here used by the 
apostle, cannot mean the material universe. What then can it mean, 
but the end of the Jewish economy, as a religious dispensation ? And 
what the Lord said to the disciples, upon the same principle of appli- 
cation, evidently refers to the end of the first christian church. 

From all of which, we draw this general conclusion : that, as a gene- 



SERMON V. 139 

ral judgment takes place at the end of the world; and the end of the 
world, in the Scriptures, means the end of a dispensation; as, for ex- 
ample, the end of the Jewish dispensation; and that, as the people 
living under such dispensation, upon whom such judgment takes place, 
have passed into that region of the spiritual world denominated the 
world of spirits; it is, therefore, in that world, that the general judg- 
ment takes place. And this is the doctrine of the new church on this 
subject. 

A judgment of this description actually took place in the world of 
spirits in the Lord's time on earth, when he overcame the world. And 
we believe that the last general judgment has actually taken place in 
the spiritual world, on those who have passed into that world from the 
christian dispensation; that this actually took place in the year 1757, 
and is the true source of the mighty changes which we witness now, 
as occurring throughout the earth in every department of life. 

Fourthly and lastly, in review of the subjects of our several previous 
discourses, we remark, firstly, that, in the light of the doctrines of the 
new church, the Scriptures do not teach the destruction of the visible 
universe, but that what is said in the sacred volume in reference to the 
earth and world is really said concerning the church ; that its destruc- 
tion means a fallen and destroyed condition of the church among men 
on earth; and its perpetuity, the immutable condition of the general as- 
sembly and church of the first born, whose names are written in heaven : 
secondly, that the earth may abide, and yet Christ have effected his se- 
cond coming; because that he comes in the genuine doctrines of his Holy 
Word, as seen in spiritual light, in the sense of the letter; whilst false 
Christs are false doctrines, claiming to be founded on the letter of Scrip- 
ture ; that the divine truth and love of the Word is heaven, whilst the 
letter is the cloud; and that thus both true and false doctrines may 
alike be attributed to the letter of the Word, — the false being real or 
apparent truths falsified, — in consequence of which false Christs are 
necessarily connected with the coming of the true Christ in the spirit- 
ual sense of the Word, which is the power and great glory, in the clouds 
of heaven, or in its literal sense : thirdly, that the resurrection takes 
place at death, and consists in the raising of the spiritual body, now 
existing in persons dwelling on earth, out of the natural body, and in 
introducing the resuscitated man into the world of spirits; which re- 
surrection as little requires the destruction or interruption of visible 
nature, as does the second coming of the Lord : and fourthly, as we 
have endeavored to show, in our present discourse, that the judgments 



140 SERMONS. 

spoken of in Scripture take place in the world of spirits, and not on 
earth. 

And in this conclusion, we thus present to you a perfectly consis- 
tent chain of doctrine, such as can only be presented by the theology 
of the new church, in which the great mysteries of faith are now opened 
for the salvation of men, in a rational reception of true doctrine, and 
by a right life according to these doctrines so received. 



SERMON VI. 141 



SERMON VI. 



THE THIEVES ON THE CROSS. 



JL#, xxiii, 43. 

"And Jesus said to him , Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shall thou 
be with me in paradise." 

It is a doctrine of the new christian church, and taught distinctly 
in her writings, that Grod is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself; and that 
being such, he is essential divine order. " And as there is no order with- 
out laws; for laws constitute it; and every law derives this from order, 
that it also is in order; it follows, that, as God is order, he is also the 
law of his own order. The same may be said of the divine providence, 
that, as the Lord is his own providence, he is also the law of his own 
providence. Hence it is evident, that the Lord cannot act against the 
laws of his divine providence, because to act against them would be to 
act against himself." (D. P. 331.) He cannot, therefore, in any case, 
save man contrary to the laws of his own order, the operation of which 
is the government of the divine providence. For the Lord cannot go 
out of order, nor act contrary to order. And the laws in which he 
acts, in operating upon his creatures, are the laws of divine truths. 

This general truth may be stated here, that " there can be no opera- 
tion but upon a subject, and by means operating upon that subject. 
Operation, except upon a subject, and upon that [subject] by certain 
means, is not possible ; and the subject of the divine providence is man ; 
the means are divine truths whereby he has wisdom, and divine goods 
whereby he has love; and the divine providence by these means ope- 
rates its ends, which is the salvation of man ; for he who wills an end 

18 



142 SERMONS. 

also wills means. Therefore, when he effects the end, he effects it by 
means." (D. P. 331.) Hence, if man does not become principled in 
truths and established in, or grounded in, a life of good, which are the 
means of his salvation, he cannot be saved. And as man cannot ac- 
quire these truths, so as to become wise by them, and live a life of 
good, so as to become principled in heavenly love, by divine goods, in 
a moment, therefore " momentaneous salvation from immediate mercy 
is not possible." And hence, if this be not possible, then death-bed 
repentance, gallows conversions, and the quick way of getting religion 
that so many have, are but religious delusions, induced by the teach- 
ings of false doctrines. But when men are told that the doctrine of 
instantaneous salvation is not true, because not possible, they at once 
appeal to the penitent thief on the cross for scriptural proof of this dog- 
ma of their religion. On this account, it is proposed, in this discourse, 
to examine the teachings of the text in reference to this subject. A 
few other passages claimed to support the same doctrine will also be 
considered. 

In the examination of the subject, it is proposed to consider — 
First, What the Scriptures teach in reference to the grounds of man's 
reward or punishment in the spiritual world, and therefore the pre- 
paration which is necessary for an entrance into heaven. 
Secondly, That individuals in Scripture are mentioned to represent 

whole classes, or states and conditions of the church. 
And thirdly, The real truth in regard to these thieves, Paul's conver- 
sion, and the eleventh hour laborer. 

First. It will be taken for granted, that the Scriptures are true; 
and that the truths which they teach are from the Lord; and, like 
their divine origin, in themselves unchangeable. It will also be taken 
for granted, that, as God cannot contradict himself, neither can the 
truths from him be contradictory: therefore, that what the Sacred 
Scriptures teach in one place, or on one point of doctrine, will not be 
contradicted in any other place, or on any other point of doctrine : and 
that, consequently, any construction put upon a passage, or class of 
passages, which would result in such a contradiction, cannot be true. 

Let us, then, look into the Divine Word, and see what is there 
taught concerning man and his condition in a future life; or, in other 
words, what the Scriptures teach as determining his state or condition 
in that life. A few texts will first be adduced from the Old Testa- 
ment. 

Jer., xxxii, IS, 19: "The Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of Hosts 
[is] his name; great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes 



SERMON VI. 143 

[are] open upon all the ways of the sons of men; to give every one 
according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doing." And 
is this scripture not true ? and if true once, is it not always so ? 

Hosea, iv, 9: "And there shall be, like people like priest: and I 
will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings." 

Then see the whole of the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, concerning 
the effect of committing wicked actions, or turning from them and doing 
righteousness. That chapter closes with the following most impressive 
and solemn exhortation: "Therefore, I will judge you, House of 
Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, 
and turn [yourselves] from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall 
not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, where- 
by ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; 
for why will ye die, O House of Israel ! For I have no pleasure in 
the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore, turn 
[yourselves], and live ye." Is not this true ? and is it not addressed 
to the church ? 

Secondly. We will cite from the New Testament passages which 
will show that the same principles of love and wisdom pervade both, 
and that like effects are predicated of vice and virtue. 

In John, v, 29, it is said, "They that have done good, unto the re- 
surrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection 
of damnation." 

Matt., xvi, 27: "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his 
father, and then shall he render to every one according to his deeds." 
Then Rev., xx, 12, 13, at the opening of the books for judgment: 
"And they were judged every man according to their works." So in 
Rev., xxii, 12 : "And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with 
me, to give every man according as his work shall be." 

Rom., ii, 6 : The apostle, speaking of man being inexcusable of the 
judgment of God, says, "Who will render to every man according to his 
deeds." (See the context, speaking of men's conduct.) In I Cor., iii, 8, 
the same apostle says, "And every man shall receive his own reward, 
according to his own labor." Then, again, II Cor., v, 10 : " For we must 
all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may re- 
ceive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, 
whether [it be] good or bad." 

These passages are surely sufficient on this point. But, in order to 
show what is required as a preparation for heaven, we will note a few 
additional texts. 

Matt., vii, 21: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 



144 SERMONS. 

shall enter into the kingdom of heaven j but he that doeth the will of 
my father, which is in heaven." 

Ibid., xxi, 43: " Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God 
shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
thereof." 

Ibid., xix, 16, &c. : When "one came and said unto him [the Lord], 
Good master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal 
life?" the answer was, "But, if thou wilt enter into life, keep the 
commandments." 

And so in Rev., xxii, 14: " Blessed are they that do his command- 
ments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in, 
through the gates, into the city." 

Now, according to the teaching of these passages, how can any one 
ever enter into heavenly life, and be truly blessed, without keeping or 
doing the commandments of the Lord ? And how can he keep or do them 
on a death-bed, the scaffold, in bondage, in an evening's excitement, 
or in a moment at the point of death? And, if every man "shall re- 
ceive his own reward," and that "according to what he hath done, 
whether good or bad," thus "according to his deeds," "as his works 
shall be," — as the passages from the Scriptures, which have been quo- 
ted, declare, — what must be the condition of a man in another life, if 
his deeds or works be bad ? This condition cannot be changed, so as 
to enable him to enter into and live in heavenly society, in a moment 
at the point of death. And, therefore, the doctrine of " momentaneous 
salvation from immediate mercy " cannot be true, if the Sacred Scrip- 
tures are true. 

Our argument, then, from the position laid down as admitted to be 
true, is this : that, as God cannot contradict himself, neither can the 
truths of Sacred Scripture from him be contradictory ; and that, if the 
passages we have quoted, to which might be added, in their literal 
form, nearly the whole of the Divine Word, be true, then no single 
passage, nor even some few passages, can contradict these, or teach an 
opposite doctrine. And, where an appearance of this kind exists, it is 
but an appearance, the real truth of which can be readily explained. 
Therefore, the thief on the cross, or Paul's case, &c, cannot justly be 
construed to teach a doctrine contrary to the Scriptures which have 
been quoted; but, when rationally explained, will be found to sustain 
and confirm that doctrine. 

And, to do this, we are brought to the second point of our discourse, 
namely, "That individuals in Scripture are mentioned for the purpose 
of representing whole classes, or general states and conditions of the 



SERMON VI. X45 

church." In proof of this use of persons, only a few passages of the 
Word need be referred to. The rich man and Lazarus, in the sixteenth 
chapter of Luke, is one. The prodigal son, in the fifteenth chapter of 
Luke, is another. Then, again, there were " two men went up into 
the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican," &c. 
(Luke, xviii.) We also have an account of ten virgins; five of whom 
were wise, and five were foolish. (Matt., xxv.) And, in the same 
chapter, mention is made of sheep and goats, as persons, for the pur- 
pose of representing the condition of men in the other life; to which, 
also, the Lord's teaching, in the twentieth chapter of Matthew, con- 
cerning the laborers in the vineyard, has reference; as well as the ac- 
counts of the Lord's curing diseases and healing invalids. 

Now, it is upon this general principle, which can be illustrated and 
confirmed from so many passages of the Scriptures, that the account of 
the two thieves is to be explained ; and to depart from this general law 
of signification and representation, would be to depart from one of the 
great laws by which alone the Word can be understood. And hence, 
we conclude, that the doctrine of sudden, or " momentaneous, salvation 
from immediate mercy," cannot, in any just sense or correct under- 
standing of Scripture, be drawn from the account given of this penitent 
thief; and it should not, therefore, be taken to prove an extreme case 
of salvation from immediate mercy, without previous preparation of 
life : because, to do this would be to contradict the general tenor of 
Scripture, as we have shown above. If this is true in one case, why is 
it not true in all cases ? 

We are, then, in the third place, to explain what is signified and re- 
presented by these thieves. All know the literal meaning and condition 
of a thief and of stealing. There are also spiritual thieves and robbers. 
Such are often referred to in the Divine Word. Our Saviour, in the 
tenth chapter of the Grospel by John, speaks much of such thieves, 
where he says, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not 
by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the 
same is a thief and a robber." (Verse 1.) 

By a thief, then, in the Scriptures generally, is signified a spiritual 
thief, who is one who steals from the Lord, by ascribing what belongs 
to the Lord in him to himself, that is, one who ascribes to himself, or 
to his own righteousness, the Lord's sole merit of his salvation. Hence 
a thief, in the Word, signifies the principle of self-merit, and represents 
that class of persons whose spiritual condition is qualified and charac- 
terized by that principle. Hence "man is in spiritual theft, when he 
claims to himself truth and good; and, in such case, he cannot enter 



146 SERMONS. 

into heaven." (A. C. 5758.) But he may be in this state of theft 
from two very distinct sources; that is to say, either perverse wicked- 
ness or ignorance — either from living contrary to the light of spiritual 
truths, which he has in his possession, or from ignorance of those 
truths, in consequence of his having them not. The latter state is ex- 
cusable; the latter is most culpable. Such were the respective and re- 
lative conditions of the Jewish church and the gentile world : accord- 
ing to the Lord's own divine doctrine — " If ye were blind, ye would 
have no sin ; but now ye say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth" 
(John, ix, 41): "And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and 
prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten 
with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did commit things wor- 
thy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes" (Luke, xii, 47, 48) : 
for the Jews were acting against the light of divine truths, in not pro- 
perly acknowledging the Lord in them ; while the Gentiles were not in 
that acknowledgment, only because they were destitute of that light. 
Hence the latter were excusable, while the former were not. We are 
now speaking of generals, and not of individuals belonging to either 
class. 

Now these two thieves represented, in one general sense, the Jewish 
Church and the Gentile world ; the impenitent thief, the Jews, and the 
penitent one the Gentiles. That the Jews were called robbers, is clear, 
from the Word: Matt., iii, 8, 9 : "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have 
robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee ? In tithes and 
offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse : for ye have robbed me, even 
this whole nation." Of what could they rob him? 

The Jewish nation did not acknowledge in heart, that the truths and 
goods they had, were from the Lord, although they had the Scriptures 
which taught them. Hence they were guilty of spiritual stealing. 
The Gentiles also were not in the heart-felt acknowledgment that all 
good and truth is from the Lord, but as this arose from ignorance 
on their part, although they too were thieves, yet their theft was of a 
different degree and kind from that of the Jews. 

Such being the spiritual signification of a thief, or of thieves, and of 
those who are represented by them in the Sacred Scriptures, any one 
may easily sec how, why, and where the difference exists between them . 
But, in order that the application of these explanations to the text may 
be clearly seen, it may be well to observe, that a state of good is the 
proper ground from which to see truth, and to acknowledge its source; 
and that, although man may be in a state of good while in ignorance as 
to truth, still such a state is not fitted for heavenly enjoyment, until 



SERMON VI. 147 

qualified by truth, that is, until good and truth are united in his will 
and understanding. But those who live in good according to what 
light they have, always receive the qualifications of truth — if not in 
this life, certainly in the other, in the world of spirits. 

And here let us not be misunderstood. We only speak of those who 
live in good, by shunning evils as sins, according to the best light they 
have. All such are saved in heaven, however ignorant of truth they 
may have been on earth. But, in being saved, they receive truth, and 
acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as God alone. 

Now this penitent thief signified this gentile good of ignorance, and 
all such as receive the Lord from a state of good ; while the other thief 
signified a state of evil in a perverted church, and hence all who 
finally reject the Lord. And because the Word of the Lord is divine 
truth itself, and not limited to time and space, or to the things of this 
earth alone, it is not confined or restricted in its meaning or application. 
Hence also, "by the two thieves which were crucified with the Lord, 
one on the right hand, the other on the left, the same is meant as by 
the sheep and the goats." (Ap. Ex. 600.) And, therefore, the prin- 
ciple and state in the church, and in the individual of the church, pro- 
ducing the quality which the Word represents by the sheep and the 
goats, is here represented also by these two thieves — the penitent thief 
having the same representation as the sheep, and the impenitent one, 
the same as the goats. Such is the most general meaning of the text. 

Now the reason why this person, signifying a state of gentile good, 
that is, good in ignorance, before such has a knowledge of the truth, is 
also a thief, is, because, in that state of ignorance of truth, the Lord is 
not truly acknowledged. The good felt is supposed to be from self, 
and not from the Lord, and is claimed by man as his own. It is, there- 
fore, a theft, ignorantly committed. 

And now a few words in explanation of the reason why these two 
thieves were crucified with the Lord. It was, first, because the impe- 
nitent thief represented, in that condition, the entire rejection and con- 
demnation of the Jewish dispensation. Secondly, because the condem- 
nation of the penitent thief with the Lord, represented that the Jewish 
nation had rejected from themselves, not only the good in the truths 
of the Word, which they had, but, also, even the state of gentile good, 
which is the good of ignorance. Thirdly, because the kind of punish- 
ment which they suffered, namely, crucifixion, represented and signi- 
fied condemnation and rejection on account of the perversion and de- 
struction of good in the church. Fourthly, because the Lord, in what he 
did while on earth, brought the Jewish dispensation to a close, and in- 



148 SERMONS. 

troduced in its stead the christian. And, in building up the christka 
church, it had to be done principally among the Gentiles, and thua 
among those who are in the good of ignorance. These the penitent 
thief represented. Fifthly, because the final completion of this mo- 
mentous work took place upon the cross, where these three, — that is, the- 
Lord himself, from whom alone the true church is, the impenitent 
thief, as the representative of the expiring and rejected Jewish church, 
and the penitent thief, as the representative of the new and rising 
christian church, — were all brought together, in order that this final 
completion might be fully and truly represented, for the sake of the 
Word of the New Testament; therefore, what took place upon the 
cross, in regard to the thieves, represented the Lord's complete rejec- 
tion of the former dispensation, on the one hand, and his coming to, 
and reception by, the new dispensation, on the other. 

These are, doubtlessly, some of the hidden arcana of the divine Word, 
involved in this memorable transaction, recorded in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures. 

Keeping these explanations in view, we add a few remarks, in refe- 
rence to the personal characters of these two thieves, drawn chiefly from 
what is said concerning them by Dr. Clark. He says, " Bishop Pearce 
supposes that these were not robbers in the common sense of the word, 
but Jews who took up arms on the principle that the Romans were not 
to be submitted to, and that their levies of tribute-money were oppres- 
sive; and, therefore, they made no scruple to rob all the Romans they 
met with. These Jews, Josephus calls lestai, robbers — the same term 
that is used by the evangelists. This opinion gains some strength 
from the penitent thief's confession : we receive the reward of our 
deeds — we rose up against the government, and committed depreda- 
tions in the country; but this man hath done nothing amiss (atopoii), 
out of place, disorderly — nothing calculated to raise sedition or insur- 
rection; nor inconsistent with his declarations of peace and good will 
towards all men : nor with the nature of that spiritual kingdom which 
He came to establish among men; though he is now crucified under 
the pretence of disaffection to the Roman government." (Clark's 
Commentaries. ) 

Such is the opinion of this high authority. And is it not a very 
probable one ? And, if true, any one may see that the penitent thief 
may have been personally a conscientiously good, kind and charitable 
man ; whilst the other might have been personally bad : for two men 
might engage in resisting oppression from opposite motives — the one 
from good, the other from bnd motives. 



SERMON VI. 149 

[Illustrate by revolution of our own country. — For example, Wash- 
ington and Arnold.] 

We will, in the next place, consider the case of the Apostle Paul. 
For want of time, but little can be said here ; and, in fact, in addition 
to what has already been offered on the main subject of discourse, but 
little need be said, to show that Paul's case does not favor the doctrine 
of "momentaneous salvation from immediate mercy/' 

First, Because Paul had all his life been a strictly religious man; 
and in the religion authorized by the Lord himself, although, at that 
time, it was in a state of entire adulteration and falsification. 

In reference to the life he had led, he says, "I am verily a man, a 
Jew, born in Tarsus, [a city] in Cilicia; yet brought up in this city, 
at the feet of Gamaliel, [and] taught according to the perfect manner 
of the law of the Fathers, and was zealous towards G-od, as ye are all 
this day." (Acts, xxii, 3.) Then, again, in another place, (Acts, 
xxvi, 4, 5,) he says, " My manner of life, from my youth, which was 
at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews : 
which know me from the beginning, if they would testify, that, after 
the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." 

Now, how very different was Paul's life from the life of those gene- 
rally, who are deluded to believe that they are made Christians upon a 
death bed, under the gallows, or during the excitement of a protracted 
religious meeting. In the present day, it is generally the most aban- 
doned and irreligious that are deluded into such belief. Let them only 
be taught strictly in "the law of the Fathers, and let them live from 
their youth after the strictest sect of their religion," and then may they 
receive the change that Paul did. 

Secondly, Paul's change was not a change from no religion, and a 
perverse immoral hostility to all religion, but only a change from one 
religion to another. It was, in fact, from one that had just closed, to 
one that had just been introduced. In this respect, his change was 
totally different from that of those who are suddenly made Christians 
at the present day. 

Thirdly, Persons may receive a sudden light of truth in their under- 
standing, without any corresponding sudden change of their will, and 
thus without effecting any sudden change of their life's love. Such 
was Paul's case. For his sinful nature still remained with him. (See 
the whole of the seventh chapter of his Epistle to the Romans.) 

He had, then, to struggle long and hard against his evils after em- 
bracing the christian religion; and it was long before he could pen 
what he said to Timothy, (II Tim., iv, 6-8 :) "For I am now ready to 

19 ' 



150 SERMONS. 

be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a 
good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Hence- 
forth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me only, 
but unto all them also that love his appearing." 

Fourthly and lastly, Paul was a sincere, religious man; zealous to- 
wards God; before he received the light of Christianity: he was no 
more than zealous, immediately afterwards. He was emphatically a 
worshiper of God before, and his change was only the reception of true 
light in a new religion, which would enable him to serve and worship 
the Lord rationally, and instruct others to do the same. He was con- 
verted especially to be a teacher — " the Apostle of the Gentiles." (Rom., 
xi, 13.) 

So, after all, Paul was only converted as he received the truth ; sanc- 
tified as he believed and lived the truth — as he fought a good fight and 
kept the faith; and justified only as he lived a life of charity from a 
love of good : and he received the forgiveness of his sins only as he 
abhorred them, broke off from them, and shunned them as sins against 
God: and, in all these respects, it was the progressive work of his 
whole life. 

Therefore, the quick way of making Christians in the present day, 
receives no support, nor encouragement, from Paul's case. 

Lastly, We are to notice the laborer in the vineyard, hired at the 
eleventh hour, according to Matt., xx. What is there related cannot 
be taken to sustain the doctrine of instantaneous regeneration and sal- 
vation, First, Because, if it were so taken, it would contradict the ge- 
neral tenor of the Sacred Scriptures; and we have admitted that one 
truth cannot conflict with other truths. Secondly, Because it is a pa- 
rable of the Lord, and has a general application to the church at all 
times; and, if the twelve hours should be taken as literal portions of 
time, then the last one-twelfth of man's time would have to be devoted 
to religious purposes. And thirdly, Because their idleness up to that 
time was not from any unwillingness to labor; showing that it was not 
from perversity of life, but "because no one had hired them." The 
passage, therefore, may be explained in agreement with the general 
tenor of the Sacred Scriptures. And this explanation we will give in 
the language of the new church. 

"By these hours, in the world, are meant times; but, in heaven, 
states of life : because, in heaven, there are no hours, by reason that 
times are not measurable, and distinguished into days, and these into 
hours, as in the world : wherefore, instead of those times, they perceive 



SERMON VI. 151 

states of the life of men, who die old, young, adolescent, or boys, who 
ilike have procured to themselves spiritual life. To labor in the vine- 
yard, is to procure that life to themselves, by the knowledges of truth 
ind good derived from the Word, and applied to the uses of life. By 
ihe third, the sixth, and the ninth hour, is signified a like state of the 
life; for all numbers, in the Word, are significative, and those num- 
bers have a like signification. ... A vineyard, in the Word, 
signifies the spiritual church, and spiritual life appertaining to man. 
The number three signifies a full state, or what is complete to the end. 
The like is signified by six, and by nine : but eleven signifies a state 
lot yet full; but still a receptible state; such as appertains to well dis- 
oosed boys and infants. The twelfth hour, to which they all labored, 
jignifies goods and truths in their fulness." (Ap. Ex. 194.) 

Such is the general explanation which the new church gives of this 
parable, and its rationality is submitted to the candid and enlightened 
mind. 

In another place, we are told, that " They who are in internal truths, 
know that, by the learned, the wise, and the intelligent, are signified 
those who are in good, howsoever unacquainted they may be with any 
human wisdom and intelligence; and that they will shine as the stars; 
and that they who labor in the vineyard obtain a reward, every one 
according to the affection of good and truth from which he labors; and 
that they who labor for the sake of themselves and the world, that is, 
for the sake of self-excellence and opulence, have their reward in the 
life of the body, but, in the other life, have their lot with the wicked." 
(A. C. 3820.) 

"Vine, or vineyard, signifies the church, where the divine truth of 
the Word is, by means of which the Lord is known/' (A. R. 649.) 

Twelve is a full state, or complex, of all truths and goods, &c. ; hence, 
those in which truth, or faith, and charity are united. Eleven is the 
next state preceding this : hence it means well disposed boys, &c, en- 
tering the spiritual world; because there they are instructed and fitted 
for heaven. Amen, 



152 SERMONS. 



SERMON VII. 



LIFTING UP OF THE SON OF MAN. 

fafw, xii, B2. 

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draio all [men] unto me." 

The verse immediately following the text, reads thus: "This He 
said, signifying what death he should die : " and from this those persons 
who abide in the letter of the word alone, and who have their minds 
resting in, or imbued with, the commonly received doctrines of old- 
church theology, may indeed suppose the words of the text to relate lite- 
rally to the passion of the cross alone. They may, from this passage, 
attempt to support the idea that the Lord thereby took away the sins 
of the world j that he, by that act alone, endured the penalties of the 
broken law in the room of man; that he thus satisfied divine justice, and 
reconciled the Father; and such kindred doctrines. We simply drop the 
remark here — might it not seem strange, that, if the Lord suffered the 
penalties of the law in man's stead, and on the cross took away the sins 
of the world, men should still continue to be so wicked as their actions 
evidently prove them to be ? that they should still continue to manifest 
so much unkindness, so much selfishness, so little of the fruits of true 
faith and charity ? But we design not to dwell on the views of others ; 
intending to present those of the new church ; so that we may more par- 
ticularly call to mind the internal truths of the text. In doing this, we 
wish them to be seen in the light of true doctrine, in a just applica. 
tion to life. 

First, then, glancing briefly at the doctrine of the text, we observe, 
that "its condition has been literally fulfilled, so far as the Lord's na- 



SERMON VII. 153 

tural elevation upon the cross is concerned. He was thus externally 
lifted up from the earth. The natural condition being complied with, 
the question properly and very naturally comes up, has the promise 
been as clearly and fully made good, as the condition has been fulfilled ? 
The condition is, " And 7, if I be lifted up from the earth/' (and this, 
observe, was literally fulfilled,) while the promise is, "will draw all to 
me." The word "men" is an interpolation of the translators. All 
persons who admit the truth of the Bible, to be consistent with them- 
selves, must admit that its promises are sure; that they cannot fail. 
This divine promise, then, "will draw all to me," is steadfast, and must 
ever come to pass; for a compliance with the condition, must ever 
bring a fulfilment of the promise. The few remarks already made are 
sufficient to show, that the text must be understood in some other way 
than in its restricted literal sense and application. This way it is now 
proposed to consider. 

In the light of the new church, we see that it relates doctrinally to 
the glorification of the Lord's humanity, to redemption, and salvation. 
A minute or extended explanation of these doctrines is not intended 
at this time. We purpose making only a few remarks, in presenting 
the general teaching of the new-church doctrines in reference to this 
lifting up of the Son of Man. 

These doctrines teach, that " conjunction was effected by the Infinite 
or Supreme Divinity with the human race, by the humanity of the Lord 
made divine." This was the true cause of the Lord's coming into the 
world The necessity for this was, the degenerate condi- 
tion of the human family. For "after that, all celestial principle per- 
ished among men, that is, all love to Grod, so that there remained no 
longer any will to what was good. Under these circumstances, the hu- 
man race was separated from the Divine Being [or principle], inasmuch 
as nothing joins them together but love; and, when there was no love, 
disjunction took place; the consequence of which is destruction and ex- 
tirpation. Wherefore, on this occasion, a promise was made concerning 
the Lord's coming into the world, who should unite the human prin- 
ciple to the divine, or humanity to divinity, and, through or by this 
union, conjoin the human race to himself by a faith grounded in love 
and charity. . . . Faith grounded in love to the Lord, who was 
to come, was a means of conjunction. But when there was no longer 
any such faith remaining among men on earth, then the Lord came, 
and united the human essence to the divine, so that," in his own per- 
son, "they became altogether one, as he himself expressly declares; 
and, at the same time, he taught the way of truth, that every one who 



154 SERMONS. 

should believe on him, that is, should love him, and the things apper- 
taining to him; and should be principled in his love, which is towards 
the whole human race; should be joined with him and be saved. When 
the humanity was made divine, and the divinity human in the Lord, 
then an influx of the Infinite or Supreme Divinity had place with man, 
which otherwise could never have existed. Hence, also, there was a 
dispersion of the direful persuasions of the false, and of the direful 
lusts of evil, with which the world of spirits was overcharged, and con- 
tinually overcharging more and more, in consequence of the souls that 
were continually collecting therein from this world. And, unless such 
a dispensation had been effected, mankind must have totally perished, 
being governed, as they are, by spirits from the Lord." (A. C. 2034.) 
And the only way of effecting this was the uniting of divinity and hu- 
manity. This is why it was necessary for the Lord to come into the 
world. 

To be lifted up, therefore, does not internally mean to be literally 
placed upon the cross. Its true signification is the elevation of the 
assumed human principle, by glorification, to full and complete union 
with divinity, thus to a divine humanity. 

So the expression, "This he said signifying what death he should 
die," does not internally mean the literal death of the cross; but it 
does mean the rejection of all infirmities from the humanity which the 
Lord assumed, and, at the same time, a complete subjugation of the 
powers of darkness. 

A divine human influence thus brought to bear upon the hells for 
their subjugation, and upon evil spirits in the world of spirits, with 
whom man is in connection, for their removal, wrouglit man's redemp- 
tion, and so provided for his everlasting salvation. 

But, to understand something of what is involved in the " death he 
should die," it may be well to observe, that the term death has 
more meanings than one. The mere death of the body is not all that 
is meant. It also implies resurrection and life. Because, at the death 
of the body, the soul is raised into the life of eternity. It also means 
rejection, because, at the separation of soul and body, the material body 
is for ever rejected and returns to its native element. So we leave be- 
hind now, in considering this subject, the common thought or meaning 
of death, as applied to the material body. 

The apostle says, " For to be carnally minded is death ; but to be 
spiritually minded is life and peace; because the carnal mind is enmity 
against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." 
In another place he says, " And you hath he quickened, who were dead 



SERMON VII. 155 

in trespasses and sins." (Eph., ii, 1.) This kind of death, then, re- 
lates to the soul, and not to the material body. 

One general meaning of death and dying is, for any thing to cease 
to be what it was before. In this sense now, we may understand how 
that term can be applied to the change which takes place in the soul 
of man by regeneration. For, when we cease to will or practise any 
thing, we may be said to die as to that thing. This applies to evil, as 
well as to good. Therefore the apostle says, "How shall we, that are 
dead to sin, live any longer therein." (Rom., vi, 2.) 

Death, then, with man, in this sense, signifies regeneration. In the 
Lord's case, it signifies his glorification. As applied to man, it refers 
to the death of all delight in mere selfish and worldly loves, because 
they are infernal; thus a passing from death unto life — from the death 
of sin unto the life of righteousness. 

But, as applied to the Lord, it means his passing from the death of 
infirm humanity, which "hath borne our griefs and carried our sor- 
rows," which "was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for 
our iniquities," into the life of perfect divinity, in the one divine per- 
son of our Saviour Jesus Christ.* This perfect glorification of huma- 
nity, Jesus Christ, the manifested Jehovah, was then the death which 
he was about to die. This full and complete personal union of divini- 
ty and humanity was his "lifting up from the earth." Not indeed to 
endure the penalties of a broken law in man's stead, to satisfy divine 
justice, or to reconcile a Father Grod to a rebellious human family. No, 
this lifting up was accomplished, in order that from divine humanity 
a glorious divine sphere of truth and love might be diffused throughout 
the universe. That inhabitants in both worlds, the spiritual and natu- 
ral, might be brought under this living influence. Yes, that human 
minds on earth, who shun their evils as sins against God, in obeying 
the laws of the Divine Word, which this sphere of divine humanity 
enables them to do, might be drawn by its attractive force and elevated 
to conjunction with the Lord, and to the blessedness of heavenly life. 

Such, now, is the doctrine of the lifting up of the Son of Man in 
reference to the Lord himself. Let us, in the next place, consider this 
drawing to him. 

The question might here be asked, as the Lord was lifted up from 

* The deifying process of the human nature which Jehovah took upon himself, 
and which was evil in its tendencies, hecause man had sinned, is what the apostle 
refers to, when he says, "For, in that he died, he died unto sin once; but, in that he 
liveth, he liveth unto God." (Rom., vi, 10.) This shows clearly in what the death of 
the Lord consisted — "a dying unto sin." 



156 SERMONS. 

the earth on the cross — which is the condition — will all men there- 
fore be saved in heaven, by being drawn to the Lord — which seems to 
be the promise? We answer, at once, No! A devil can never be- 
come an angel; a satan can never enjoy the delights of heavenly light 
and love. And all who, in the life of the body, have confirmed them- 
selves in falses of faith and evils of life, become, in the other life, 
satans and devils. 

No, they never can be elevated into, so as to remain in, heavenly 
society. But, in the light of the New Jerusalem, we learn that the 
Lord rules, or controls, the hells, as well as leads and governs the hea- 
vens : and this he does from love, and not from anger — anger being 
only an appearance, according to the evil and perverse state in which 
the infernals are. He rules, or controls, them, therefore, for their best 
good, according to the evil state in which they are. He, in his love, 
restrains them in their attacks upon heaven and each other, and checks 
the influence of their infernal insanities. 

As the Lord thus controls the hells from love and tender mercy, and 
not from anger, he therefore casts no one into these wretched congre- 
gations. But he who confirms himself in that which is false and evil, 
voluntarily plunges himself into infernal abodes. This he does, be- 
cause every individual in the created universe has the free election of 
his own state of life. He is his own distinct and peculiar love, and 
not another's. And this constitution of man's nature is essential to 
his existence as a man. According to this nature, he receives freely 
from the Lord, and voluntarily applies to his own distinct inclinations ; 
and, as he applies, he forms, to himself and in himself, from the things 
received of the Lord, his own heaven, or his own hell. 

If man, therefore, becomes evil and casts himself into hell, it is his 
own fault — consisting, as it does, in liow he applies, and not in wliat 
he receives from the Lord. But, on this account, the Lord does not 
cease to love him; for he loves divinely the whole human race. He 
does not cease to provide for and govern even him who plunges himself 
into the depths of wretchedness and misery. No, even in that state, 
the unhappy creature receives of the Lord's love, but differently from 
what it is received in heaven ; or, rather, he applies it differently. In 
short, God is love; and love never ceases to be love in the Lord. 

The Word teaches : " For I am the Lord ; I change not : therefore 
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." And again: " Jesus Christ, the 
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." This unchanging love of the 
unchanging God flows to the universe of creation, and to all therein, 
both in heaven and in hell; and its tendency is to draw all to itself. 



SERMON VIL 157 

But this drawing is subject to the laws of eternal order, which require 
and provide for the freedom of man's will. This cannot be violated; 
and therefore, according to this order of man's creation and existence, 
when he plunges himself into the depths of infernal society, by a life 
of evil, he will not suffer the tender drawings of love and mercy to 
elevate him to heavenly conjunction and blissful association. Love 
draws towards the Lord, but evil impels from him. 

But should it be said by any, 'According to this doctrine, then, an 
evil or wicked spirit is stronger than the Lord; we answer, No! near- 
ness to the Lord, or distance from him, depends upon state. An evil 
state of mind is at a distance proportioned to the degree of evil. So a 
good state of affection is near to the Lord in proportion to the degree 
of good. Thus are all souls situated. Therefore, the degree of misery 
is always according to the state of evil; and the degree of happiness 
according to the state of good. 

The Lord is the source of happiness to all ; and, because he is good, 
happiness can dwell and rest only in good; and the affection of good 
determines the state, and alone qualifies for any approach towards con- 
junction with the Lord, our Father in the Heavens. By this reference 
to good affection, however, we do not mean good without truth; but 
good operating in truth. 

Without the preparation and qualification of good, then, for any one, 
in the spiritual or the natural world, to be drawn nearer to the Lord, 
and to a state of his love, than he now is, would only lessen his pre- 
sent degree of happiness, instead of increasing it. Therefore, neither 
man, nor evil spirit, is stronger than the Lord — simply because the 
unceasing love of Deity, does not draw' him violently, or contrary to 
his own will, into a more elevated state than the one in which he is. 
The reason why he is not so elevated is, because each one is his own 
distinct love, which he determines for himself, and which requires him 
to be exactly where he is. 

Therefore every one is drawn into as elevated a state, as his own 
peculiar love, which he elects to govern him, will suffer him to be 
drawn. 

Thus, indeed, does the Lord draw all to himself; but the laws of 
order, even for the benefit of the wicked, cannot operate so as to draw 
up and elevate a devil into heaven, and make him an angel there; nei- 
ther can it give him angelical happiness where he is, at his distance of 
removal from the source whence alone it can spring. Inasmuch as 
happiness is found in the love and life of good, therefore it is only those 

•20 



158 BERMONS. 

who are in that love and life, that can be happy; and men are not 
forced into that love and life. 

In this love of the Lord drawing all into nearness to him, or permit- 
ting them to remain at a distance according to their respective states, 
may be seen the truth and wisdom of that passage of the Holy 
Word, even in this general sense, where it is said, "The Lord is 
good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works." His di- 
vine presence is thus declared: " Whither shall I go from thy spirit? 
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up into hea- 
ven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts 
of the sea; even there, shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand 
shall hold me." (Ps. cxxxix, 7, &c.) 

The doctrines of our church teach, that the " Lord flows in with every 
man by the truths which are from himself, whereby he gives life to 
man; for the light which is from the Lord, is divine truth, and is life. 
This divine truth, which is from the Lord, enters by influx into the 
good appertaining to man, and by it draws man to itself; for the life 
which is from the Lord is attractive, inasmuch as it is from love; since 
all love has in it a force of attraction, inasmuch as it is willing to be 
conjoined with others, even until they are one. When, therefore, man 
is principled in good, and from good in truth, he is then attracted by 
the Lord, and is conjoined to him. And, when man is not principled 
in good, thus not in truths derived from good, he is then also attracted 
by the Lord, but he cannot be elevated, since evils and consequent falses 
avert him." (A. C. 8604.) "It is to be noted, that man of himself, can- 
not approach to the Lord and be conjoined to him, but the Lord must 
approach to man and be conjoined to him; and, whereas the Lord draws 
man to himself, (John, vi, 44,) 'No man can come to me, except the 
Father which hath sent me draw him ; and I will raise him up at the 
last day : ' it appears as if man of himself approaches and conjoins him- 
self to the Lord. This is effected, when man desists from evils; for 
to desist from evils is left to man's disposal and liberty. In this case, 
good flows in from the Lord; which is never wanting; since it is in the 
life which man has from the Lord : but, with life, the quality of good 
received is proportioned to the evils removed." (A. C. 9378.) "There 
is actually a sphere elevating all to heaven, which continually proceeds 
from the Lord, and fills the universal spiritual world, and the univer- 
sal natural world; and it is as a strong current in the ocean, which se- 
cretly draws a ship: all they, who believe in the Lord, and live accord- 



SERMON VII. \r>V, 

ing to his precepts, enter that sphere or current, and are elevated, 
whereas they, who do not believe, are not willing to enter it, but re- 
move themselves to the sides, and there are carried away by the stream 
which tends to hell." (T. C. R. 252.) 

Such, now, is the doctrine of the new church on this lifting up, this 
divine sphere, and its drawing influence with man. And all this is 
involved in the text. 

In conclusion, we will briefly notice its practical sense and application. 

From what has already been said, it may be seen, that this lifting 
up is not to be regarded as the literal act alone ; for, if so, the promise 
as well as the condition would alike be literal. But this, we find, has 
not been so. In practical application, for our advancement in heavenly 
life, the condition of the text and the promise alike ever stand open 
for fulfilment. In this sense, every truth of the Sacred Scriptures, is 
the Lord with us, because he is the Word. From this source, we learn 
more or less. The truths thus acquired, are stored up even in our ex- 
ternal memories. These principles of the Word, down in the external 
of man, or the external of his mind, thus in that region of his nature 
which comes in contact with earthly things, are the Lord in the earth 
with us, because he is in the truths of his Word in our sensories and 
exterior memories. These are to be elevated into our interior under- 
standings, and into the ruling affections of our wills. We, therefore, 
experience a lifting up of the Lord, the Son of Man, from the earth, 
in us individually, when we suffer our thoughts and feelings, together 
with our words and actions, and our whole lives, to he purified by these 
divine truths of the Word. When we so live, we suffer truth and 
good to be exalted, in us, above low, earthly and groveling considera- 
tions. In this case, we look up; we look to the Lord; we look to 
heaven, and to heavenly things. 

The Lord, the Son of Man, is lifted up in us, when we place a pro- 
per estimate upon the doctrines of his Word — when we prize them 
above every other possession, because we love them and their influence 
— when we, in the internal light of the Word, are enabled to see its 
spiritual sense, and, on that account, attach a still greater importance 
to the Holy Oracles — when we, by the truths of the Word, turn from 
self-love to the love of the Lord, from the love of the world to the love 
of the neighbor. In this application, the truths of the Sacred Scrip- 
tures will be uppermost in our thoughts and desires, and foremost in 
our lives. Use will be looked to in all we do. The end, for which 
we live, will regard eternal life. 

From this sense and application, then, we may learn that the truths 



\Q0 SERMONS. 

of the text are eminently practical. And what a holy and heavenly 
state of life will the practice of them produce ! The divine truths of 
the Holy "Word will be lifted up in the mind. They will be exalted 
above the earthly and groveling affections of natural, selfish disposi- 
tions; and, from that lofty eminence, will shed down a healthful influ- 
ence into the exterior thoughts and feelings, imbuing all the actions of 
men. 

By this application of the text, we are required to shun all unkind 
thoughts and feelings, because they are false and evil, and, consequently, 
sins against G-od; to "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before 
our God." 

And thus, too, can we connect the condition and promise of the text. 
Jehovah assumed humanity in the person of Jesus Christ and made it 
divine. It is, therefore, the divine love of that humanity, the glorified 
Lord Jesus, which, as a spiritual sphere, draws human minds to itself; 
and elevates to heavenly life and happiness all who obey the voice of 
truth in shunning evils as sins against G-od. This love can reach our 
minds in their fallen state only in the truths of the Divine Word. In 
these, the condition and the promise meet. 

When, therefore, we perform our part, the Lord will perform his. 
For, when we suffer the truths of the Word to be lifted up in us from 
immersion in low and earthly affections, then the divine sphere of 
glorified humanity will, in these truths, draw all our thoughts and feel- 
ings, — all our words and actions, — and will cause them to live in faith 
and charity. Thus they will be drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
be in sweet conjunction with him. The condition and promise will 
then both be fulfilled. And happy will he be who suffers this fulfil- 
ment. Amen. 



SERMON VIII. 161 



SERMON VIII. 



CASTING THE WICKED INTO HELL, 



, ix, IT. 

" The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget 

God: r 

These words of Divine Record are solemn and important. They are 
solemn, because they speak of wickedness and of hell — important, be- 
cause they relate to man's eternal state. Hence all persons should 
feel interested in understanding them correctly. They should feel so 
most truly, if the condition of wickedness and hell should relate to a 
future life. 

In discoursing from these words, at this time, attention will be called 
to two general inquiries. First, what is the true meaning of the terms 
used ? and, secondly, is this meaning confined to the life of this world 
alone, or does it also and essentially relate to a future life — the life of 
the soul after the death of the material body ? 

First, then, as to the meaning of the terms used in the text. This 
can be best ascertained, by turning to the original. 

In the Hebrew language, the word here rendered wicked, is Reshan- 
gim, which means, properly, it would seem, " to make noise and tu- 
mult; to cause disturbance; to disturb, to agitate : " hence, secondly, 
"to do evil, to be wicked, impious, opposite to justice or righteous- 
ness; since wicked men are usually noisy and boisterous in doing in- 
jury, while good men are gentle and quiet:" thirdly, "to have an 
unjust cause, to be guilty." — Gesenius. 



162 SERMONS. 

Such is the most literal meaning of this term, as found in the text : 
and, even in this sense, it is unlimited in its application ; for it is not 
confined to any land or clime, age, or time; neither to this life, nor to 
the future; the fact itself only being distinctly declared. 

The word given in the common version of the Scriptures "shall be 
turned," is, in the original, Jashuboon, a verb in the form of the future 
tense, and may be rendered literally, shall, will, may, can, must, or 
any such auxiliary. But the word itself literally means "to turn about, 
to turn back, to return; " that is, to a person, place, thing, or condi- 
tion. So it may be properly rendered, shall, will, may, can, or must 
turn about, turn back, or return to hell. 

We now come to the word "hell," about which much has been said, 
and much diversity of opinion exists. In the Hebrew language, as 
found in the text, it is Hsholah. The common, simple form is sheol. 
It is the same word in the text — only that there, the letter I, lamed, 
is prefixed, and the letter h, hay, affixed ; each of which letters has a 
modifying meaning, when thus attached to words. 

Sheol, (as Hades in Greek, and Orcus in Latin,) means literally, 
"the under world, a vast subterranean place, (Job, xi, 8,) full of thick- 
est darkness, (Job, x, 21, 22 : see Isa., xiv, 19, et seq.,) where dwell 
the shades of the dead; and to which are poetically ascribed valleys, 
(Prov., ix, 18;) and also gates and bars, (Isa., xxxviii, 10; Job, xvii, 
16.") Elsewhere, Sheol is said to devour all, (Prov., i, 12;) to be 
insatiable. (Prov., xxx, 16; Isa., v, 14, &c.) — Gesenius. 

The primitive word, or the root, is Shawal, meaning literally "to 
dig, to excavate, to hollow out; " so that Sheol, Hades, Orcus, signi- 
fies, properly, a hollow place under ground : secondly, " to ask, to in- 
quire, to ask for, either by way of demand or entreaty." 

Such, now, is the literal meaning of the word itself, as used in the 
Hebrew language; and any one may easily see that its meaning is the 
opposite of heaven. For, heaven, in the original, literally means "the 
skies — the heavens, the high, that is, the firmament, which seems 
spread out, like an arch, above the earth, and is represented as sup- 
ported on foundations and columns." The root of the word is Sham ah f 
to be high. 

Now, as to the meaning of the two letters attached to Sheol in the 
text, we need only say, that Lamed, properly, denotes " motion, or, at 
least, direction towards any thing; a turning to, or towards, any ob- 
ject:" and also, secondly, "into, as a passing into another state or 
condition; for example, to make or change to or into any thing." 






SERMON VIIL 163 

Then, the other letter, Hay, is termed local, and has the meaning 
of towards, in direction of, as ward in English — heaven-ward, hell- 
ward : but always towards a place, and never towards a person. Bush 
says, in his Hebrew Grammar: "So, when these definitions are put 
together, the Lisholah of the text literally means to or into, toicards 
the under world, where dwell the shades of the dead — a hollow place 
under ground." 

As to the literal meaning of the other terms of the text, we will only 
remark, that the word rendered "that forget," in the form in which it 
is used in the text, signifies forgetters of, or forgetting of, that is, God. 
It is in the plural form, and literally means "to forget:" also, "to 
leave a thing from forgetfulness." 

Such is the literal import of the leading terms of the text. And, 
when they are understood as expressions, or vessels, containing inter- 
nal, spiritual truths, they will be seen to be appropriate. 

We have, therefore, distinctly declared to us, in these words, by the 
Psalmist, that there are those persons who are termed wicked — such as 
make "noise and tumult, or cause disturbance. " And we have also 
the place called in Hebrew Sheol, which translators into English are 
pleased to term hell. But it matters not what it is called in English, 
since we have its true literal meaning as used in the original; Hebrew, 
Sheol — Greek, Hades — Latin, Orcus; the under world, a vast subter- 
ranean place; or, as a Latin authority defines the ancient meaning of 
Orcus, "a district compassed about, from which none can escape — the 
abode of the dead — the lower world." (Leverett's Lexicon.) And it 
matters not that men have, in modern times, under false views of reli- 
gion, attached erroneous and revolting notions to the state and condi- 
tion of hell ; such false ideas concerning it, do not alter the reality and 
true nature of the state, condition, or place itself. And we are as- 
sured in the text that these wicked, noisy, tumultuous disturbers will 
or shall turn back to, towards, or into this state or place called hell; 
and that thither all nations forgetters of God go. 

Now, in view of these facts, in the second place, the question arises, 
Are these things all confined to this life and to this world, and do they 
end, when we go hence? 

A very extended examination of this point cannot be given here, 
for want of time ; and, in fact, it would not seem to be needed, in 
order to satisfy any reasonable mind. We say, in the light of the 
new church, that the teaching of the text refers to the spiritual world. 
This is the doctrinal belief in the new church; and a few reasons 



164 SERMONS. 

for believing such to be the doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures will be 
given. 

First, The Divine Word, being truth itself, must harmonize in all 
its parts. One part will not contradict another. Should it seem to do 
so in the eyes of meD, it is because they rest in only the Word's literal 
sense, and because this is not correctly understood by them. The 
Word of G-od, manifestly and confessedly, cannot be inconsistent with 
itself ; and, therefore, the truths of the Sacred Volume must be con- 
sistent with themselves. These positions, we think, are self-evident. 

Then we remark, as our first reason for referring the state called hell 
to a future life is, that, because it is literally opposite to heaven, con- 
sistency would require, the kind of life to which the one refers, to be 
also that to which the other refers. Hence, it is maintained, that, if 
Sheol only refers to this material world, heaven will have a like refe- 
rence; and, therefore, if you take away a future hell from men, you, 
at the same time, to be consistent in the use of literal terms, must also 
deprive them of a future heaven. For the existence and durability of 
the one, are as much spoken of, in the Scriptures, as those of the other : 
and, in whatever sense you understand them, they are the same and 
equally true. 

So, in this connection, it may be remarked, that what is here said, 
in reference to these places, hell and heaven, may also be said of vice 
and virtue — misery and bliss. They, too, are opposites; and are so 
spoken of in the Sacred Scriptures throughout. And as strong lan- 
guage is used to express the permanency and futurity of the one, as is 
used in reference to the same conditions of the other. Hence, to be 
consistent in the use of language in the same book, if you take away 
vice in the spiritual world from those who are vicious here, simply be- 
cause they have entered that world, you must take away virtue there 
from those who were virtuous here. So of misery and bliss. For there 
is just as much scriptural proof for the one as for the other. 

Secondly, We believe that hell relates to a condition, or state, and 
hence place, in the spiritual world, because the Scriptures are given to 
teach men concerning the Lord and the things of a future life. The 
internal or spiritual truths of the Word relate entirely to that life. So 
the term hell, and the state hell, as a part of the Word of Revelation, 
have this internal sense, or spiritual meaning, and hence reach to the 
life in the spiritual world. If it only related to the life in the material 
body, there would not have been any need of a Divine Revelation to 
fceach it. M<n would have learned it as they learn natural or worldly 



SERMON VIII. 



16$ 



truths in general. The fact of its being found in Revelation is suffi- 
cient of itself, therefore, to show that it has an internal relation to the 
spiritual world. For all the truths of the Scriptures, touching spiritual 
things and a future life, are expressed to men in the letter of the Word, 
in terms used among men, and applied also to natural and material 
things. It is so with the terms hell and heaven. 

Thirdly, We do not believe the term Sheol is used in the Sacred 
Scriptures, to mean only the literal grave or place in which to deposite 
dead bodies, or merely figurative of any condition confined to this life 
alone; because, as to the literal grave, the bodies of the good are put 
there as well as the bodies of the wicked. Those who know they 
"have passed from death unto life, because they love the brethren," 
(I John, iii, 14,) have their material bodies put there, as well as those 
who continue dead in trespass and in sin. And it cannot mean figu- 
ratively a state of political captivity, because the good are there as well 
as others. In either case, the text would really be a useless and un- 
meaning passage, because it would declare, of the wicked and forgetters 
of Grod, what only happens to all alike. 

And, lastly, it cannot certainly mean simply a moral degradation, 
which belongs to this life alone ; for, in such case, there would have 
been no need of Divine Revelation to teach it. 

From all the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures, then, in the light 
of the new church, it is believed that the Sheol of the Divine Word, 
does teach the existence of a hell in the spiritual world, into which 
persons, who live and confirm themselves in wickedness, enter, after 
bodily death. They go there, not because they are forced to do so, by 
an arbitrary, vindictive power, but because, in consequence of the na- 
ture contracted in the life of the body, they voluntarily choose their 
abodes. Yes, they will, in infernal freedom, to turn into or towards 
hell, because that is the life of their infernal loves. And, sorrowful as 
the reflection may be, it is truth from the eternal fountain of all truth, 
that there is a hell in the spiritual world. The Divine Word of the 
Lord declares it, and his "word is truth." And the wicked enter 
there. 

According to the Saviour's own Words, "Wide is the gate, and 
broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which 
go in thereat." This declaration, too, is not confined to this life and 
world; but, because the Lord makes it, and his words "are spirit and 
are life," it makes known what exists in the spirit world. And re- 
member, if you please, that those who are termed wicked, are not 
forced arbitrarily, but will to enter this "wide gate," and willingly 

21 



IQQ SERMONS. 

tread this "broad way:" and, having entered in thereat, they go on 
until they find such abodes as agree with their internal love of evil. 
They are no more forced there, by the arbitrary power of another, than 
a man is forced here, by such power, to be a drunkard. But, if a 
man's own appetite entices him to drink, so does the spirit's lust for 
evil entice him, or even compel him, if you choose, to will to enter an 
abode of hell, where he may seek to indulge in his infernal desires, 
and enjoy, as best he can, unholy gratification. 

Such is the doctrine of the text as understood, in the light of the 
new church, by her members, and as received in faith by them. And 
we now close with a few more remarks. 

The doctrines of the new christian church teach, that every expres- 
sion of the Divine Word has an internal or spiritual sense or meaning; 
that, in such spiritual sense, it treats of the Lord, and of the things of 
the spiritual world; and that the outward expression, in the sense of 
the letter of the Word, is wisely adapted to the spiritual state or prin- 
ciple involved in it and signified by it. The external is just fitted for 
the internal. For the literal meaning of the Word corresponds to the 
internal or the spiritual sense. This being so in regard to the whole 
Word, is true as to each expression of our text. 

Thus state determines place in the spiritual world. A state of wick- 
edness — spiritual forgetfulness of G-od, is a state of hell, and deter- 
mines the place : and this state is one fitly expressed in the idea of 
lowness; for, when a person degrades himself by a life of wickedness — 
sinks into moral turpitude, it is common to speak of him as being loir. 
The literal meaning of Sheol is just adapted to express this state, and 
exactly corresponds to it; and such is its spiritual meaning in Scrip- 
ture. While, on the other hand, virtue, goodness and truth from the 
Lord determine heaven. Such persons as live in those principles, are 
spoken of as having a high tone of moral character. The literal mean- 
ing of the word heaven is just adapted to express this heavenly state, 
and exactly corresponds to it. And such is its spiritual meaning in 
Scripture. So both hell and heaven are determined by states of life, 
and alike belong to the spiritual world. And who that will think ra- 
tionally can fail to see the truthfulness of the correspondence of these 
literal terms and their spiritual signification. 

As to the distinction, in the text, between the wicked and the na- 
tions forgetters of G-od, we can only remark briefly, that the wicked, 
spiritually, are such as act more from the principle of falsity, or from 
a perverted understanding. A life of this description, wherein falses 
take the lead and predominate, may be termed the evil of falsity. 



APPENDIX. 167 

On the other hand, nations, in this text, are the perverters of the 
good of love, and act from the love of evil, or from a perverted will, 
as the predominating trait of their character. 

Thus wickedness implies a perverting of what is true into what is 
false, and a choosing to live according to such perversion; while na- 
tions, forgetters of G-od, denote the turning of what is good into what 
is evil, or the adulteration of good, and thus the choosing to live ac- 
cording to such adulteration. 

From this, it may be seen, that wickedness relates to the understand- 
ing, and nations, forgetters of Grod, to the will. 

When any thing does not agree with our life's ruling love, we do 
not care to think about it; we, as it were, separate from it; and this is 
spiritually to forget. Amen. 



APPENDIX. 

The following letter, addressed to the Rev. R. De Charms, is here 
appended, to prevent the uselessness of a blank page. 

Buckland, Virginia, March 24, '56. 
Rev. R. De Charms : 

Dear Sir and Brother ; 

I have just finished reading the Autobiography of the Rev. 
David Powell, as given in your Newchurchman. Its perusal brought 
afresh to my recollection an incident that may not be uninteresting to you. 
At one time, — 1834, 1 think, — I was teaching school in Jefferson County, 
Ohio. Having finished the amount of services contracted for in a certain 
neighborhood, I made a visit to Steubenville. One of my acquaintances, 
in that place, was a young man named David Hutchison, or Hutchinson. 
He was a classical scholar, and had preceded me, as a teacher, in a certain 
school district. He and I were then members of the Presbyterian church. 
Whilst in Steubenville, Mr. Hutchinson informed me, that a Mr. David 
Powell, who had a select classical and English school, in Steubenville, 
was desirous of obtaining an experienced teacher, to take charge of his 
school, whilst he should go to and return from Cincinnati; and stated that 
Mr. Powell had requested him so to do; but that, as he was studying me- 
dicine, and did not wish to lose time, he had commended me to Mr. Pow- 
ell, as one who could both suit and accommodate him. Mr. Powell asked 
Mr. Hutchinson to bring me to see him on the subject. Mr. Hutchinson 
and I called on him. I was introduced to him. He was pleased to en- 
gage my services. I took charge of his school, whilst he made his con- 
templated journey. I think Mr. Powell told me, he was going to Cincin- 
nati on business pertaining to his church. He returned, in due time, to 



168 APPENDIX. 

Steubenville — seemed gratified by the manner I had instructed and go- 
verned his pupils, and paid me liberally for my services. 

I had been raised a Quaker, or Friend; but, not feeling- fully satisfied 
with their views of doctrine and worship, I had, after anxious examination 
of various creeds, attached myself to the New School Presbyterian Church, 
as that which then came nearest to my understanding of the Word. But 
I was far from being fully satisfied with any creed I then knew. I was 
looking and laboring for unmixed truth in doctrines, and higher, holier, 
more consistent, and more thorough conformity of the life to it. 

When Mr. Powell had returned from Cincinnati, called at his school- 
house, given me his friendly salute, thanked and paid me for my services, 
he went to a part of the room, obtained a small book, and, in that mild, 
gentle, modest, amiable manner for which he was marked, offered me the 
book as a present. I asked him what was its character. I believe he 
told me it was a contrast between the doctrines of the new church and 
those of the sects. 1 opened the book, glanced over its pages, caught 
something of its style and matter, and then gently returned it to him, 
stating that I was as well satisfied with my faith as I thought it possible 
then to be. Oh! my blindness! my pride of self-derived intelligence! 
The pearl was offered! but, alas! I had not spiritual perception to compre- 
hend it as such! Ah! how the remembrance of Brother Powell's gentle 
manner, his affectionate anxiety for my eternal welfare, now pains me! 
But, thank the Lord! I had in me some genuine "remains." I did indeed 
warmly love what appeared to me as truth, and delighted in what appeared 
to me good, holy, in any and every one: and the Lord, in his infinite mercy, 
did not permit me to remain always blind to the light and good of the New 
Jerusalem ! About seven years ago, whilst residing in Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, Swedenborg's "Earths in the Universe " fell into my hands. I 
read it. It was the means of leading me to discover that Swedenborg was 
divinely illuminated; that he is the Lord's messenger to introduce the 
New Jerusalem. The perusal of various other of his works has established 
my faith firmly. I was never before satisfied with all things of a church — 
doctrine, philosophy, and life. My feet rest, now, on a sure foundation. 

Some time ago, and before Mr. Powell's departure to the spirit world, I 
addressed a letter to him, therein recounting the substance of the above 
narrative. I thought it would cheer and comfort his benevolent heart, and 
encourage his efforts in behalf of others, to learn that the Lord had brought 
me, by a way I knew not, into the light of the "holy city." That letter, 
I sent to Steubenville. In a letter from some relative of his, in answer to 
mine, I was told Mr. Powell was not at Steubenville. Whether he ever 
received and read the letter I had written for him, I know not. 

The basement of the Episcopal Church, at Steubenville, named in his 
Autobiography, is the room in which his school was held, when I took 
charge of it for him. Memory of him is sweet to me ! 

Submitting the above, I am truly yours, p****** r****. 



-J 



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